Dragons and Men
by angrypoptart12
Summary: Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Laxus, Sting and Rouge are all in a punk band fighting to rock to the top. Six rowdy boys with clashing personalities must stick it out together. What will happen when a favor's called in and each of them must work alongside their new personal assistants? NaLu & GaJevy. Rated M for language, lemons, and intense adult content/situations.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail or any of the music lyrics used in this whole story.

 **(5/16/17): So I've decided when I go back I'm going to take out a lot of my past author's notes when I release a new chapter, so that it doesn't distort the word count. Newest chapters will have personal notes about my life, but by the time the next chapter comes out they'll be gone. This will cut down on word count distortion and will make things much easier on new people who find this to read and don't want to read two paragraphs at the top of each chapter.**

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Natsu had his head pressed against the wall of the recording studio wondering what he was doing with his life. It was his decisions up until now that had led to him being trapped in a recording studio with people he would normally call friends, until they became the only five people in the world he couldn't stand.

"Oi!" Gray yelled over at Natsu who was trying to stealthily bang his head on the wall, "If you're going to pout then you don't get a vote on the name!"

The pinkette just gave him a cat-eyed glance of mild annoyance as he asked, "How long have we been here already? Two hours? And we haven't recorded _anything_! I'm starving!"

"I agree with the flame brain for once" Laxus chimed in, "We came here to work. Without the music there's no point in naming the band to begin with."

"But I told you White Shadow is the best name!" Sting whined as he slid his hands up and down the synth and keyboard for no reason other than boredom. He was making all kinds of weird noises erupt from the speakers due to his key pressing.

"Iron Columns is the only name that sounds like it's sturdy enough to make it through the producers" Gajeel scoffed.

Rouge simply crossed his arms indifferently as he said, "If I wasn't mistaken I'm pretty sure that our manager, Erick, said he was going to come up with a name."

Everyone looked over at Rouge and somewhat scowled. None of them were particularly fond of Erick especially since he seemed to have the mannerisms of a snake and appeared to be conniving like one too. However no one could fault him for his ear for music. He had a reputation in the industry for scouting some of the most successful bands. So when Natsu and Laxus were approached after a battle of the bands concert they were surprised to be handed his business card then asked to sign a contract with a record company. They didn't even name their band. They were always just called "Slayer" because they basically 'slay'd' every contest and blew their competition out of the water. They didn't adopt that name themselves though. They always just put their names on the front of the album cover for their EP.

Natsu took into account each name on the album sitting on the wooden table next to the sofa in the studio. It was their only EP. First name on the top was Natsu's. He was the lead singer and screamer of the band with his voice that seemed to burn like a passionate fire with the audience he always knew how to put on a good show. Though he wasn't exactly sure what he was doing half the time and the band members had developed a habit of just rolling with his antics. He had a habit of randomly changing the songs on the set, or sporadically jumping off of stage props. The list went on.

The next name on the album was Laxus. He played the lead guitar that usually held the solo riffs and powerful single note melodies on guitar. His hands were like lightning the way he ran up and down he neck of the guitar. His muscular appearance also seemed to attract a lot of female fans. They reminded him of the next person on the albums cover.

Gray. Also known in the band as a lady killer. He was the drummer for the band and usually had a fight with Natsu every other hour and constantly seemed to be in some sort of unequivocal rivalry with Natsu that had no measurements or winners and losers. It was just pointless bickering most of the time that the band members usually got sick of and would intervene now and again, especially when it came to blows.

Gajeel. He was the odd man out it seemed. He also played the guitar, but he played pulsing power chords behind Laxus's riffs and sometimes joined him on a separate riff. Laxus and Gajeel usually spent more time practicing their coordination on songs than any other two band members. Out of all the members though Gajeel had the most hard core frightening appearance that probably partially inspired their fan given name of "slayer" since he looked like he's probably killed a few people in his life time. The piercings all over this body were usually an intimidation factor whenever they met fans. He had a small amount of girls that were into the bad boy look, but most of them just looked genuinely afraid of him.

Sting and Rouge. The two of them were the last two at the bottom. They always insisted on having their names be side by side on band gear and the EP cover. If Natsu didn't know any better he would've thought they were fraternal twins. Sting played the synth and keyboard for the special effects sounds and to fill in here and there with the music. He was creative enough to usually make it work. Rouge played the bass. He was fairly quiet and introverted compared to Sting who was very outgoing, a ladies man, and every bit the personality Rouge wasn't. They were like yin and yang with each other. They seemed to be the only two band members who seamlessly got along with each other. They occasionally squabbled, but it was usually petty and ended quickly, where as Natsu and Gray would come to exchanging blows before being pulled apart by Laxus.

"Hey, flame-brain, you listening?" Gray walked over and started beating on Natsu's head with his drum sticks.

"Cute it out ice tits!" Natsu swatted Gray's drum sticks away before punching his arm and shoving him away, "You guys are still arguing so I'm just thinking to myself how hungry I am."

"Don't do that" Laxus looked at him, "You never think, so why start now?"

"You wanna repeat that?" Natsu growled as he grabbed Laxus's shirt collar.

The blond was completely unfazed though. He had known this brat unfortunately for most of his life. As much as Natsu would bark at him, he rarely ever 'bit' Laxus so to speak. He knew that if he hit Laxus or pushed him just a little too far, there would be hell to pay.

"There are my slayers!" Erick seemed to spew from his mouth with false flattery as he waltzed into the room.

"What is it?" Natsu asked rather annoyed while still holding onto Laxus's collar.

"What's this?" Erick asked, suddenly noticing the angry tension in the room as well as Natsu's grip on Laxus, "I thought you guys were supposed to be bandmates? Where's the love?"

"Down the toilet along with Natsu's lunch he dumped off in there fifteen minutes ago" Gray commented.

"That's a little too much information don't you think?" Natsu yelled, finally letting go of Laxus's collar before making fists directed at Gray.

"Use Febreze next time, fire farts." Gray crossed his arms before going to sit down behind his drums.

Natsu just grit his teeth at Gray while Sting tried to stifle a laugh, Gajeel openly laughed, and Laxus had a pompous smirk across his face.

"I swear you're as easy to play with as a yo-yo." Laxus grunted under his breath.

"Boys!" Came a loud voice from behind Erick.

It was no surprise that Makarov came walking into the room. He owned the studio that they were using to record, he was also Laxus's grandfather. However he treated Laxus more harshly then he rest of them when it came to critiquing their music, and Natsu wasn't the only one who noticed that. Makarov walked over and bopped his grandson on the head earning a laugh from Natsu before he was silence by a punch across the face by Makarov as well.

"Don't laugh at someone when you're more at fault then they are!"

"Gramps what did I do?!" Natsu whined.

Natsu referred to Makarov as gramps just like Laxus because Makarov had taken care of Natsu several times for extended time periods in between foster homes until Makarov finally adopted the nuisance along with Gray in high school. Natsu spent a lot of time being raised alongside Laxus so he tended to think of Laxus as more of a pompous older brother.

"You get angry too easily. Knock it off." Makarov chided him before walking around the studio to make sure all the equipment was plugged in correctly and turned on, "Everything's set up, why aren't you guys playing?" he asked annoyed.

"Because they're too busy bitching about a name!" Natsu shouted in his hungry rage from not eating in the past four hours.

Makarov just face palmed before he looked over to all of them and reprimanded, "If you guys are going to take the record label seriously then you need to show your managers *cough* Erick *cough* that you are going to put in the effort to make their investment worth while."

"But I'm too hungry~" Natsu whined grabbing his stomach.

"Tell you boys what" Erick gave them a toothy grin, "You spit out one song for me that you know, even if it's off your EP, and then I'll take you boys out to celebrate tonight since you just signed your record label this morning. Maybe we can even come up with an idea for a name over dinner."

"Fooooooood" Natsu growled in delusion imagining a giant buffet while drooling slightly.

"Sure, that's easy enough" Gray sighed a little annoyed.

Laxus stood without answering and began to tune his guitar and Gajeel did the same. Gray adjusted the snares on his drums while Sting made sure he had all the effects from his sound bank lined up right for his keyboard."

"There's actually one new song" Natsu grinned at Erick, "We've performed it a few times, but we wrote it after we released our EP and we didn't feel like making a one track EP so we just held off."

"Lay it on me" Erick smirked as he and Makarov walked into the sound control room on the other side of the glass from the band room.

After putting some headphones on Erick and Makarov turned on the equipment and as the band was warming up adjusted the instruments volume level to balance out. Natsu turned around to face Gray with the biggest grin, making gray roll his eyes before tapping on his snares as Natsu starts off by yelling.

 _It's 9 o'clock on the dot, at the spot, and I'm hanging with her friends again~_

 _Great taste, beautiful place, and you're fashionable late. HEY!_

Gray then started beating on the bass drum while Gajeel played a fast two power chords before Natsu began again.

 _And I don't wanna be that guy, that makes you sad, that makes you cry again._

 _Without a doubt, sorry about makin' out with your friends. Go!_

After that line the whole band suddenly erupts into the song.

 _na na na na na na na naa na na na na na naaa na na na na na na naaa na na na na naaaaaa_

 _I love the way that this began, started off right, so innocent._

 _I'm letting you know, I'm letting you go, I want your best friend._

 _I'm giving it up and asking why you seem so shocked and so surprised._

 _I'm sorry it hurts, I'm surely a jerk, I understand why you're mad._

Sting and Rouge suddenly provide the background harmonizing vocals for Natsu on the bridge as he sings: (in bold)

 ** _Don't talk that crap when you call me back, as a matter of fact don't act like that._**

 ** _Everybody knows you're right, everybody knows I'm wrong._**

 _It's 9 o'clock on the dot, at the spot, and I'm hanging with her friends again._

 _Great taste, beautiful place, and you're fashionably late._

 _And I don't wanna be that guy, that makes you sad, that makes you cry again._

 _Without a doubt, sorry about, making out with your friends!(mwah!)_

 _na na na na na na naa na na na na na naa naa naaa na na na na na na na na na naa na na na na naaaa_

 _It's got nothing to do with how you look, just another excuse to write a hook._

 _I'm letting you know, she liked my post up on my Facebook._

 _And after all you're not my type, but all your friends are pretty nice._

 _You know what I mean, stop making a scene and take some words of advice._

 _Don't talk that crap when you call me back as a matter of fact don't act like that._

 _Everybody knows you're right, everybody knows I'm wrong. (right?)_

 _It's 9 o'clock on the dot and the spot and I'm hangin' with her friends again._

 _Great taste, beautiful place, and you're fashionably late._

 _I don't wanna be that guy, that makes you sad, that makes you cry again._

 _Without a doubt sorry about making out with your friends._

 _And I have got the topic conversation now, and I know I'm running out of time (yeah)._

 _It's not an honest demonstration now, you're not the only one, not the only one._

Suddenly the band drops out except Gray and Gajeel for the next two lines while Natsu leans his head down having his bangs hide his face.

 _Don't talk that crap when you call me back, as a matter of fact don't act like that._

 _Everybody knows you're right, everybody sing along._

Sting and Rouge don't play the next two lines but instead chorus and echo of "HEY" as Natsu sings the next two lines, lifting his head back up.

 _I don't wanna be that guy, that makes you sad, makes you cry again._

 _Without a doubt sorry about fucking all your friends._

 _It's 9 o'clock on the dot at the spot and I'm hangin' with her friends again._

 _Great taste, beautiful place, and you're fashionably late._

 _I don't wanna be that guy, that makes you sad, that makes you cry again._

 _Without a doubt sorry about making out with your friends._

Since the chorus of "na na na na" was basically taken over by Sting and Rouge Natsu decided to entertain himself by doing a back flip off the couch in the recording studio before singing "Making out with your friends" in between the melody of "na na na na's"

 ** _na na na na na na naa na na na na na naa naa naaa na na na na na na na na na naa na na na na naaaa_**

 _Making out with your friends_

 ** _na na na na na na naa na na na na na naa naa naaa na na na na na na na na na naa na na na na naaaa_**

 _Making out with your friends_

Then in a goofy voice after all the instruments drop out, with a laugh Natsu says:

 _Without a doubt sorry about having sex with all your friends... ha ha ha_

The boys couldn't hear Erick clapping his hands although they could see him. He then pressed a button in the sound booth that let his voice come in through he speakers in the band room.

"That was great. I think that first go was good enough for me to send to the producers to start lining up songs for your next album, including the tracks from your EP."

"Food!" Natsu cheered and jumped into the air knowing that not having to do the song over meant they were headed out for dinner.

"Sure!" Erick chimed through the speakers before opening the door to the booth and gesturing for the boys to head outside the recording room.

After all the boys shuffled out of the room Erick closed the door behind him leaving Makarov alone to balance the sound out and merge the track into a song. They all followed Erick down a few hallways in the studio's building before walking out the front entrance. They were all a little surprised to see a limousine parked on the curb waiting to pick them up.

"I figured that this would be a nice change from carpooling in your band's van." Erick grinned before opening the door for them to all shuffle inside.

After they all managed to squeeze inside the limousine of course Natsu was the first to notice the champagne bottle in an ice bucket inside and picked it up and shook it.

Erick quickly grabbed the bottle before the cork popped out and aimed it so that no one's eye got shot out before pouring the sparkling liquid into all the glasses and handing them to the boys, "Tonight, we celebrate your new record label!" Erick cheered, "One night spoiling you guys shouldn't be too bad for you."

Laxus raised a brow questioningly at Erick before knocking his glass back. He noticed Rouge and Sting were hesitant to drink it but shrugged before slowly sipping down their own glasses. Gray of course waved his hand to signal he wasn't interested in drinking before looking sullenly out the window. He wasn't one for parties. Natsu immediately grabbed Gray's glass from Erick and downed it before putting it in the small bin next to the champagne for the glasses to be placed after being used. Erick shrugged off Natsu's antics since he was well informed that the flame brain was a force of nature that just had to run it's course as it destroyed everything.

"If Gray's gunna be a party pooper maybe we should send him home" Natsu sneered.

"Then who would drag your limp bodies out of the limo?" He scowled.

"What do you mean?" Erick asked confused.

"Just watch" Gray said before the car pulled out of the recording studio parking lot and out onto the road.

Suddenly the entire band except for Gray was leaning over looking ready to puke.

"You have to be kidding me!" Erick raised his brows, "All of them have motion sickness?!"

"Don't ask me why" Gray shrugged, "It's always been a problem for all of them traveling in the van. It's why I always got stuck driving to gigs."

After they arrived and Gray stepped out of the car he was even more annoyed as he saw where they'd arrived. It was a strip club. Why would anyone eat at a strip club. They weren't exactly known for their "burgers and fries" and Gray being rather attractive to most women usually didn't like these kinds of places as the women usually threw themselves on him without respect to his personal space.

"I hope you boys are ready for some fun" Erick said wiggling his eyebrows as he finished dumping Natsu's limp body on the side walk before the pinkette crawled up to stand on his feet.

Suddenly Natsu, Sting, and Rouge's face all turned blood red. Laxus face palmed and and Gray just sighed in slight annoyance.

"You guys ever been here?" Erick asked as he was walking towards the front door.

"Of course not!" Gajeel hissed, "We don't exactly do this in our spare time."

"Well I'm sure you'll like it" Erick winked before he led them inside, "Especially since we have a VIP booth with it's own poles."

"A private pole?" Gray asked with a raised brow never having heard such a thing, or at least never having been exposed to it.

Erick nodded as he walked down the brightly lit walkway through a large room full of poles and women dancing on them. Neon beams flashed everywhere as well as loud music.

"Hey it's the only place louder than Natsu" Gray remarked before being slapped over the head by Natsu before they came to a stair case that took them upstairs.

At the top of the stairs was a large balcony with a large round booth table that overlooked the club below. There were also two poles on each side of the door that were in direct view of the circular booth. With a snap of his fingers Erick had a door attendant walk out of the room and return a few minutes later with a purple haired girl with a drink tray.

"Shots as usual, I'm guessing?" Kinana smiled warmly before she set a shot glass down in front of each of the boys then plopping herself down in Erick's lap like they were familiar with one another.

"This is Kinana" Erick smiled at the boys, "She'll be our room attendant for the night. She usually waits on me and any clients or musicians I bring here with me. She'll take good care of you."

After winking at the purple haired girl, she hopped off his lap and sashayed away back downstairs. A few moments later a blond in a white and pink bikini timidly walked into the room and walked over to one of the two poles and immediately started spinning around it performing what Natsu considered remarkable arial tricks along the pole that weren't necessarily sexual but very entertaining to watch. It was her body that made him uncomfortable. Her breasts looked like they would pop out of her stringy bikini top at any moment and the bottoms looked more like a thong almost fully exposing her perfectly shaped ass. Natsu almost got caught starting at her with his mouth open before Sting kicked him from under the table scowling at him. Natsu sheepishly smiled as he tried to turn his attention back to Erick who was spouting on about future tour dates and recording schedules for the new album. Natsu couldn't help but look out of the corner of his eye at the blond every couples seconds. She was mesmerizing. After a couple more moments another woman walked up. Her short bobbed silver hair was adorned by a single blue flower and she was wearing a pure white string bikini. She seemed to have a silent conversation with the other woman on the other pole with a few facial expressions as they both continued to dance around the poles. Moments later Natsu noticed it was his turn to kick Sting under the table as he noticed the blond staring at the other woman with silver hair. Instead of a scowl Natsu just gave him a huge shit eating grin. Sting crossed his arms and slouched slightly pouting. Natsu couldn't help but notice that Sting was pouting even more after the food arrived to their table for them to eat and the girls had excused themselves.

"Why did they have to leave?" Sting asked two minutes later sounding childish.

Erick choked on his food a little, feeling weird for having to answer his question, "Because for men sometimes… it's hard to eat comfortably when you're…"

"When you have a boner" Gajeel finished his sentence for him.

"Yea that" Erick laughed, slightly uncomfortable.

"Did you want them to come back?" Kinana chuckled as she walked in to check on the men and refill their drinks.

Erick raised a brow and Natsu and Sting who seemed to be the only ones who cared.

"What are their names?" Natsu asked more curious as to who they were then what their bodies looked like.

Kinana raised her brow reluctant to answer as she replied, "The blond's name is Lucy, and the Silver haired girl is Yukino"

"Lucy…" Natsu said to himself as Sting whispered, "Yukino…"

Erick was a little entertained that the boys seemed to have an attraction to these girls and looked as if the girls had gained two regular customers.

"There are rules though" Erick told them quickly before they sank any further, "You can't touch them."

Natsu immediately dropped his jaw before sputtering, "Th-that w-was not w-what I was t-t-trying to do!"

Gray scoffed before he asked, "Didn't Kinana sit in your lap."

"That's different" Erick corrected him, "I didn't touch her, she sat in my lap of her own free will. If the girls feel comfortable enough to come sit with you or sit on your lap, that's fine. But if they don't you have to respect that. If you don't Mavis will throw you out so fast your head will spin."

"Speaking from personal experience?" Gajeel asked with a saucy grin.

"Not personal, but I've seen other stupid people come in here and get too drunk and abuse the girls.

"This isn't a good job then…" Natsu grumbled observing the men downstairs looking at the girls as if they were pieces of meat.

"Not particularly, but Mavis does what she can to make things bearable and make sure the girls' needs are met."

"Is this Mavis person here?" Rouge asked scanning the room.

"She is" Erick told them, "But she usually doesn't make an appearance unless there's some kind of disturbance or issue that needs her attention."

"I brought them back" Kinana joked with a laugh as Lucy and Yukino walked back into the room behind her with trays of drinks.

"Ugh…" Natsu grabbed his head groaning.

He'd already had two shots and at least three mixed drinks. He wasn't completely hammered but he was definitely starting to feel woozy. Laxus and Gajeel seemed completely unfazed, Gray seemed sober as stone since he only had the one shot at the start of the night and refused every other drink offered to him. Rouge was red in the face while trying to sit in silent composure while Sting was laughing at everything next to him like the happiest drunk Natsu had ever seen. He saw Kinana lay out Bacardi bombs in front of all of them except Gray because she'd caught on at this point that he wasn't going to drink it.

"It's always flowing like water here" Erick laughed as he held up the glass trying to get all the guys to make a toast with him.

They all raised their glasses before quickly knocking back their liquor. Natsu at this point had absolutely no shame in staring a Lucy since he'd lost his better judgement and personal sense of shame. Sting was also staring at Yukino but trying to look around the room as well so that she wouldn't feel his gaze on her. Laxus decided he needed to get away from this table for a while. Sting and Rouge were starting to get a little too drunk and it was only a matter of time before Natsu did something stupid and got into it with Gray and ruined the evening. He told them he was going to walk around and look at the place.

"Enjoy the eye candy" Erick winked at him before Laxus disappeared out of the room and made his way down the stair case.

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 _ **To Be Continued...**_

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 **I hope that was a good first chapter! ^_^ I have two more chapters in the bag right now but I'll try to hold off on posting them for at least a few days to see what kind of reaction this story gets.**

 **Please leave me a review with your constructive criticism!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail, or any of the music lyrics used in this story.

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Laxus walked out into the open lounge and weaved in and out of benches and booths with patrons, mostly male, watching the half naked girls around the room. Laxus wasn't particularly drooling over any of them and decided it was best if he sat out of the way down by the bar in the corner. To his surprise in a matter of seconds a woman with long silver hair and her bangs tied upwards in a short ponytail above her forehead came over with a smile on her face to greet him, she was in a tube top and short shorts, which was rather modest for the rest of the attire around the room.

"What can I get you stranger?" She smiled at him looking over her shoulder at him waiting for him to pick a drink so she could get a glass down, "Don't worry I know you're with the VIP group so it'll be on Erick's tab, free of charge to you" she joked with him as she flitted her eyes quickly to the balcony room where the rest of their party was.

"Gin and tonic with lime" Laxus grumbled.

"Sure!" she chirped before quickly making his drink and asking "on the rocks?"

"If you don't mind."

"Not at all" she mused as she set a small square napkin down before placing his drink on it and putting a small black straw into it, "So what brings you here?" she asked since it seemed like he obviously didn't really want to be in this joint.

"Celebration apparently" Laxus grumbled a little out of sorts from already being rather intoxicated.

"Oh, what kind? A birthday party?" She leaned on the counter resting her chin on her hands.

Laxus looked around wondering why she was paying so much attention to him then he realized no one else was really sitting at he bar, the rest of the patrons were huddled around the poles and cages with mostly naked women dancing on them. It dawned on him that she was just trying to be a good host, and he wasn't against her company since she seemed to be cheerful without being annoying.

"Record label party" he told her, "My band just signed a contract with Oracion Seís, Erick's label."

"ooOOOoooo, music guy then?" She said with a playful grin.

"Yea" he gave her his first grin of the night.

"Let me guess, guitar?" she gave him another devilish smile.

Laxus grunted with a nod then raised a brow before asking, "How can you tell?"

"You have that bad boy aura, and you seem to not get along with any of your band mates" she gave him a knowing smirk, "Very guitarist personality traits."

Laxus scoffed. What did this woman know about him? He'd only been sitting here for the past ten minutes. There was no way she could have calculated all of this in a short amount of time. Right then Laxus suddenly noticed someone occupying the seat at the bar next to him.

"Ooo another guitarist" Mira cooed taking one good look at Gajeel and already knowing the whole story.

Gajeel just turned to Laxus with a raised brow before turning his attention back to the silver haired woman with the same expression.

"Your friend here has a very lone wolf vibe that's angry and sullen, you give off the same vibe, sorry." Mirajane smiled at the two of them. "But now that we have _two_ men at the bar, let me go get my co worker to wait on you" she winked before quickly disappearing and coming back with a girl with shoulder length blue hair that was held back by a scarf tied around her head.

She was wearing an orange halter top with white short shorts similar to Mira's. She had a crooked smile she showed to Gajeel before looking over at her silver haired co worker who was busying herself wiping off glasses and restocking the shelves with dish-ware. Mira seemed to have a slightly scowling expression that wasn't present before she went and grabbed her friend and Laxus tried his best to simply ignore it while drinking his tonic in silence.

"You gunna help me or what shortie?" Gajeel asked with a scrutinizing expression as he crossed his arms.

Immediately Levy put her hands on her hips as if ready to belt a retort before Mira's cough interrupted her followed by, "Remember our deal."

Levy just sighed before asking, "What can I get for you?"

"A smile would be nice, ghihi" Gajeel chuckled making Levy's mouth twitch in slight amusement and annoyance, "A rum and coke is fine."

Levy just gave Gajeel a silent thumbs up to keep from running her mouth at the pin cushion she assumed was his face.

"What deal?" Laxus finally asked as his curiosity got the best of him.

Mirajane looked over at Levy with a sympathetic smile as she answered Laxus, "Well Levy here is new, and she doesn't really appreciate this kind of thing, but it's all she has at the moment. I work the bar alone usually, unless I have more than one customer. Since she's my partner I told her she can sit in the back and read her books until I need her, but when I come get her she has to put on a smile and deal with customer's with a happy attitude."

She scowled over at Levy at the mention of the happy attitude. Levy just rolled her eyes before placing Gajeel's drink in front of him. However on further inspection after Mira gave her a hard look, Levy realized she forgot the square napkin and lifted his drink back up and put it underneath before placing a small black stir straw in his rum and coke.

"Thanks shrimp" Gajeel told her before picking up his glass and slipping on his beverage while he was leaning against the bar with his back to Levy looking out at the crowd and people watching.

"I'm not a-" Levy stopped mid sentence as she felt Mira's aura growing darker.

Gajeel turned around with a raised brow as if inviting her to finish that sentence, but Levy just waived her hand dismissively before cleaning glasses and walking down to another bar patron who had just sat down a few feet down the bar from them.

"You'll have to excuse her" Mira sighed, "She's still not used to the whole 'customer service' thing…"

"So are you faking it too?" Laxus asked playfully.

Mira took a second to place a finger on her chin and look up at the ceiling before answering, "Well I've done this for so long that customer service is really just apart of my personality. I like talking to people and making conversations pleasant. It's second nature to me, so I wouldn't say I'm faking it. It just takes some time sometimes to acquire the habit of being happy about it."

"I suppose that's a good way to look at it" Laxus grinned before he turned to people watch along side Gajeel with his elbows propping him up against the bar, "So what are you doing down here?"

Gajeel looked at Laxus before giving him a grin and chuckling, "Just making sure you stayed out of trouble."

"Natsu's getting rowdy?" Laxus read the hidden message behind his words.

Gajeel scratched the back of his head before he said, "They're _all_ up there… being 'rowdy'. Not the kind of way I really enjoy myself in a public place, but if that's their cup of tea that's fine."

Laxus shrugged before saying, "Well at least you aren't Gray or Natsu. Out of all of them you usually piss me off the least. If one of them came down here to bother me I probably would've left."

Levy suddenly stopped drying off a glass and looked at the back of Gajeel's head with a slight admiration. She could tell by his words that basically the men upstairs were being perverts while he chose to leave and come down here where he could keep a respectable distance from all the sexual tension. It caused her to make a slight smirk, which she regretted as soon as Gajeel turned around and saw her smiling at him. Levy instantly turned around to face away from him so that he wouldn't see her blushing. Gajeel chuckled at her before turning his attention back to the crowd. Laxus and him didn't exactly get their kicks off watching naked women. For the most part they were looking at the bafoons who were throwing money at the girls and literally climbing over each other to get the closest to the pole. A few men even got in a small fight slinging beer on each other. Neither Laxus or Gajeel laughed at the behavior but they each had a sick inner humor over it and enjoyed watching it. It took Mira a few minutes to realize Laxus wasn't looking at the other women in the room, but just watching the customers and smirking every time some idiot spilled booze on someone or "accidentally" grabbed someone's ass. For some reason it gave her a small sense of relief, but why? Mira didn't know this person. Why did she care so much if he was looking at other people, moreover, other women?

Laxus turned around a few times to look at Mira taking note of her name tag and had a few other small conversations with her before he pushed off the bar and signaled to Gajeel that they should probably break up the party and head home since it was already 2am and they had to be in the studio at 10am tomorrow morning. Gajeel gave one last smirk over his shoulder at Levy before following Laxus back upstairs.

Natsu knew this was getting out of hand, but the liquor in his body was in the driver's seat and for some reason instead of stopping him everyone else seemed to be encouraging it. Gajeel had left as soon as Erick said the "real party" was starting. Natsu wasn't particularly a pervert, but for some reason this one blond girl had stolen all of his attention. It started out as a joke that some how hand landed Natsu, Gray, Sting, and Rouge all in separate chairs from the booth each with a girl giving them a lap dance.

Since Natsu wasn't paying attention Erick decided to play a little bit of a joke on him and made him sit in a separate chair then made a gesture and Lucy got off the pole and hesitantly walked over to him before rubbing her assets all around him. One by one all the boys had ended up in chairs with women on them. Erick's words echoed in Natsu's head that he wasn't supposed to touch them, but he was having a hell of a time keeping his hands to himself between her voluptuous curves in his face and his numerous alcoholic beverages.

Sting seemed to be having the same problem as Yukino gravitated her hips in his direction, however she seemed much more embarrassed about it than Lucy was. The blond has a small twinge of color on her face, but Yukino's was bright red. Lucy also seemed to not mentally all be there, but Natsu suddenly felt guilty as he realized that it's probably because she has to do this for so many men and the only way she can keep her sanity is to detach herself. Yukino hadn't seemed to grasp that yet since she was a bit more clumsy and seemed to be a little more bashful about it.

Natsu almost wanted to laugh when he looked over at Gray. The woman with shoulder length blue hair that curled at the bottom was a little _too_ into her lap dance for him. She seemed to violate his personal space in a way that Natsu wished Lucy would do to him, but couldn't exactly make her. Rouge basically had a long haired girl with dark brunette hair in his lap. The poor boy was cinching his eyes shut trying to avoid his urges as well. Natsu could commiserate with him a little. The pinkette was happy just watching from a distance, but this, this was too much.

Laxus and Gajeel suddenly came back up stairs a few minutes later both going wide eyed at the sight, before narrowing their eyes in a disgruntled glare at all the other guys in the room.

"You weren't kidding" Laxus grumbled under his breath to Gajeel.

The two gruff men tried to weave their way in-between their friends' fap-fest, before sitting back in the booth and trying to convince Erick to end the party. After about five more minutes of their grumbling Erick figured he'd run up his tab enough to make a few of the accountants over at the record label's head's spin around a few times. He waved at the ladies and each of them retreated from the men before heading down the stair case back down to the large crowds downstairs. Natsu was a little bummed that they took the VIP exit out the back way to the limo instead of getting to walk through the main atrium again. He wouldn't get to catch sight of the blond again.

* * *

"Get your head out of your ass Salamander" Gajeel growled as Natsu messed up the lyrics for yet another song. The pinkette was completely brain dead after all the booze last night.

None of the band members were particularly perky since they were functioning with hangovers and six hours of sleep. Gray was the only one who didn't have a hangover since he hardly drank, but he was definitely sleep deprived and hot and bothered from last night's events.

After a few minutes of tapping his pencil on a notebook he heard Laxus messing around on his electric guitar with a lead riff and then he got a melody in his head. Rouge quickly picked out a bass line and Natsu started humming before they all stopped playing and looked at him for some kind of sign that he had an idea. After scribbling for a minute Natsu held his pad as he starting belting into the microphone in the studio.

 _I've lost my goddamn mind. It happens all the time._

 _I can't believe I'm actually meant to be,_ _here_.

 _Trying to consume, the drug in me is you._

 _And I'm so high on misery, can't you see?_

Laxus played an insane solo up and down his guitar for fun just to see how it sounded before Rouge thumped in with the bass line and Gajeel threw in a few power chords joining half way through. Gray and Sting just watched not really sure how to jump in.

"That can work right?" Rouge asked hopefully liking how his baseline actually got to shine through a few times.

Laxus just shrugged and Gajeel grinned as he chuckled.

"Sounds great!" Erick suddenly chimed in through the speakers catching the guys off guard, "I'm glad to see you're hard at work."

Laxus just rubbed his temples in annoyance at the sudden interruption. It would've been better if Erick had just kept his presence a secret and sat quietly. Now that Natsu was distracted there was no telling if the idiot would ever finish the song. The volume of the speakers didn't help either. Laxus tried to brush off most of his hangover this morning by guzzling five glasses of water and some motrin. He excused the noise when Natsu was singing since it was part of the music and he enjoyed it slightly, but when someone was just talking loudly it was different.

"I think if you finish that one it's definitely a chart topper!" He tried to sound positive since he could tell his sudden presence was seemingly unwelcome.

"Thanks…" Gajeel grumbled as he crossed his arms and twitched his mouth in slight irritation.

"There's one more" Natsu grumbled as he flipped through his pad and looked over at Gajeel and Gray.

Laxus, Rouge and Sting hadn't heard the song yet, but Natsu had run it by Gajeel and Gray to try and get them to play a riff and beat along with it. Natsu cleared his throat a little since this one required him to scream.

 _Just let me go, I'm on my own, a rolling stone, and I'm in the zone._

 _Don't let me fall, just let me know when we'll make it through._

On the last word Natsu turned his shouting style of singing into screamo as Gajeel laid down heavy power chords along with Gray slamming on the drums. It didn't take long for Rouge and Sting to join in and try to pick out the music though it was still a little rough around the edges.

 _I got that shit that you can't bump in your car_

 _Steady lurkin' on my enemies to settle the score_

 _I am never backin' down until the day that I die_

 _And I don't give a fuck about no hater on my life_

 _I am the best at what I do and I will always prevail_

 _And overcome all obstacles while walkin' through hell_

 _And if you gotta problem now's the time to speak up_

 _Because I'm blowing up I'm never gonna stop_

Natsu started singing again as he repeated the chorus before they all faltered out since there wasn't much.

 _Just let me go, I'm on my own, a rolling stone and I'm in the zone_

 _Don't let me fall just let me know when we'll make it through_

 _No matter what the price may be, for clarity I'll make it home_

 _Just let me go, I'm on my own, a rolling stone_

"Definitely like that one too" Erick said, "Is it finished?"

Natsu scratched the back of his head and said "I got a few more versus I need to throw in but I have the bridge."

"Oh what's that?" Erick asked.

Natsu looked around knowing that they were all scowling at him but he said, "Well when they band drops out except Sting for synth effects I rap."

"Oh?" Erick sounded interested.

Natsu grinned sheepishly at Sting and the blond smiled back. The two of them goofed off sometimes and did their own rap style, but when it was fun or something that sounded good Sting usually encouraged Natsu to write it down and slip it into a song. Natsu took a deep breath as Sting played a few synth effects in the background.

 _Don't get it twisted, ballistic, characteristics when I rip shit intricate_

 _Visions of infinite wisdom empirical spiritual lyrical very cool synonyms_

 _In lamest terms I am the best you must agree_

 _I got that white boy swagger rappin' right down to a T._

 _I got my hand up on the throttle holdin' up a broken bottle_

 _Ready to cut you up and gut you like a fucking avocado_

 _Desperado on the track in fact if I am gone tomorrow_

 _Then my motto is no sorrow no apologies just karma_

 _Don't get it twisted and delete me off your friends list_

 _Stayin' busy tweeting hatred at my all up in my business_

 _I'm getting kicks outta this shit like it was my sneakers_

 _And the game fears me like_ _ **mother fucking wifebeater OOOO**_

At the last three words Natsu reverts back to screaming, but fades out and looks around the room at all the guys. For once, Laxus didn't comment or hint at it sounding stupid and Gajeel seemed to genuinely like it. It made Natsu beam with at least a little bit of pride.

"Finish hat one first" Erick commented through the speakers, "We'll release that in a few weeks once you polish it up, so that way we can do a two song tease to play over the radio so people get excited for the full album. The rest of the songs we'll put on hold till we release your album and start planning the tour dates."

Laxus just just plopped down on the couch after putting his guitar on the stand nearby. Gajeel joined him while Gray chose to stay behind his drum set and Sting and Rouge sat on the edge of the platform Gray's drums were on.

"You guys look like you could use a break" Erick sighed a little defeated, "You did get a lot done today. It's already five o'clock after all."

Nobody bothered responding except Natsu who groaned then curled up on a nearby arm chair in a ball and gnawed on his arms like they were meat. He was obviously starving and the others weren't in the best frame of mind either. Makarov was nice enough to stop by around 1 in the afternoon with a few subs from a shop nearby to tide them over the rest of their practice session. Gajeel was a little peeved that they didn't polish anything enough to record it and get things rolling, but he guessed that fragments to work with were better than nothing.

"If you guys want, you can be done for today" Erick said after walking into the studio room making sure all the equipment was in working order and tidying up a few lose ends around the room.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Please leave me a review to let me know what you think! ^(^0^)^**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail, or any of the music lyrics used in this fan fiction.

* * *

The boys all stood and headed out one by one. Luckily the house they had rented wasn't too far from the studio and due to their incessant motion sickness they all opted to walk home. It was only a two mile distance. The city was crisp since it was already October and leaves littered the side walks.

"That wasn't half bad" Laxus said as he walked up to Natsu, "I normally don't like you rapping since it's never catchy and usually childish, but that actually sounded a little rougher than your usual crap."

"Thanks?" Natsu said questioningly.

Laxus didn't usually hand out compliments, even half-assed ones like the one Natsu just received. After all the men walked through the door Gray instantly took his shirt off and threw it at the coat rack and missed.

"We were at a strip club last night ice tits, we don't need another show" Natsu groaned as he walked over to their gas fireplace trying to get the damn thing to turn on.

"When we're here at home I can do whatever I want" Gray sneered.

Rouge just looked at him then commented, "You usually do what you want anyway. You're shirtless half the time in the studio too. I'm wondering how you managed to walk home without stripping sometimes."

"Sometimes he does strip walking home" Gajeel chimed in, "But usually in the summer when it's warmer."

Gray just scowled at both of them before stomping upstairs to take a shower.

"You could cut the poor guy some slack." Laxus chimed in from the kitchen doorway, "He claimed it's a medical condition."

"Strip-atitus is not a real thing. I think it's a personality disorder." Natsu grumbled.

"That's still medical… I think" Laxus scratched his chin before heading back inside the kitchen, "We got any food in this dump?!" He shouted with his head in the fridge.

"I think Natsu ate the last of the chicken fried rice this morning, so you can either have cold cereal or we can order pizza." Rouge yawned.

"Pizza" Sting immediately voted.

Natsu and Gajeel raised their hands in agreement before Laxus groaned and walked over to the telephone on a table and dialed the local pizzeria just a few blocks away. After putting in an order for a large three cheese pizza, a meat lovers pizza, a philly cheese steak pizza, and a supreme stuffed crust pizza Laxus hung up the phone.

"That stuffed crust is all mine. Don't you bastards even think of so much as _breathing_ on it." Natsu growled at them while searching for the TV remote under the couch cushions Gajeel and Rouge were sitting on.

"What is it with you and food?" Sting grumbled, "It's like you act like you've never eaten a real meal in your life. Besides no one else wants that pizza. All that extra cheese in the crust is going to make us fat. I honestly don't know how you eat it all."

"You sound like a girl" Natsu grinned with his hand jammed in the sofa.

"If you hit my ass from under there Salamander so help me god" Gajeel growled just a few feet from Natsu's face.

Natsu immediately after he said that accidentally touched Gajeel's lower back and screeched as he felt the metal head put his hands on the back of Natsu's neck. As an instinctive reflex the pinkette jumped up and started running up the stair case away from Gajeel who was growling and giving chase right behind him. Half way up the stairs Natsu jumped over the banister back down to the ground floor and took off down a hallway towards the garage.

"It was just your lower back!" Natsu shouted.

"It was still to close!" Gajeel yelled after him.

"Careful with the rails guys we just got those fixed from your last fuck up!" Laxus bellowed at the two of them.

"Found it!" Rouge said with partial enthusiasm as he held up the remote he'd fished out of the couch, which Laxus immediately snatched right out of his hands and turned on the news.

"You're such an old fart" Sting sighed as he rested his head on his hand looking uninterested at the TV.

"Someone here has to know what's going on" Laxus growled as he watched a reel of the latest news.

Gajeel ran back down the stairs instead of jumping over the rail after Laxus had yelled at them and when he got to the garage it was pitch black and even after turning the light on Natsu was no where to be found. Seeing no pink anywhere Gajeel just cursed under his breath before turning back to go into the living room, fuming with rage at being violated by a pink haired twit.

Natsu had managed to slip into an empty trash can they put in the garage. Luckily the trash was collected yesterday so they were empty and the bins were put back in the garage. After hearing Gajeel slam the door open he held his breath and waited for the lights to turn back off and the door to close before he slipped back out of the trash can using his cell phone's flash light setting to navigate through the dark. Running over to the door that led outside the garage to the drive way, he crept out of the house. After slipping through the door he breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't be welcomed back inside the house for a while, he knew that much. At least he didn't feel like his life was flashing before his eyes anymore. After walking around the side of the house and their short ten foot stub of a drive way, he sat up on the front porch away from the windows and sat on a swing that was suspended from the rafters above the porch. It was weird having a nice house in the city, especially since across the street were industrial sky scrapers and there were only five or so houses on their street that looked like theirs. Their backyard neighbors were apartment buildings. That being said there was really no yard other than a two foot margin of grass between he porch and the sidewalk of the city. When Natsu looked up at the place he realized how amazing it was that they'd made it this far. They were living the dream now.

Each of the boys had a dead end job living in their parents' basements while they practiced for battle of the band nights at shit hole joints. Now they were sharing a giant four bedroom house with a giant everything; kitchen, living room, TV, fireplace, porch. It gave Natsu a few minutes to really appreciate how far they'd come. It was a good time, he realized, to think up some lyrics for a new song. However he face palmed himself that his notebook was still sitting on an end table in the living room next to the man who wanted to kill him right now. Quietly humming to himself, he typed a few words into his phone on a note app as they came to him.

 _I thought I had myself all figured out._

 _But I've spent my whole life holding myself down._

 _And it seems to be that sort of thing,_

 _I keep doing constantly._

 _Addicted to the pain I cause myself._

 _My head is floating somewhere in the clouds,_

 _While I'm paid to entertain a lively crowd._

 _They sing my songs and feel my pain,_

 _cause pain is what creates my fame._

 _A vicious cycle, someday I'll get out._

Right when he was trying to think of a good chorus suddenly he was interrupted by a cough a few feet away. He looked up and nearly dropped his phone. It was Lucy, the blond girl from last night, and she was holding his food in a velcro bag.

The jeans, red polo shirt and ball cap were definitely a different look than her white bikini with pink flowers from last night. Natsu instantly had to shake his head to get the visions from last night out. He couldn't start looking at her like that now if he wanted to stay sane and keep his dignity in tact.

"It's you…" he said not sure of what else there was to say.

"It's me…" Lucy said almost mockingly making the atmosphere a little more awkward.

"I thought you worked…" Natsu trailed off trying to find the best way to ask the question.

"I work two jobs" she told him as she undid the velcro flap of her pizza bag she was holding, "I work over at Magnolia Lounge at night. My shift there starts in a few more hours. I work at Wakaba's pizza palace a few days a week as well."

"How do you sleep?" he asked not realizing how the question came out until he slapped his face a few seconds later.

Lucy let out a small chuckle knowing what he meant despite how it sounded as she told him, "I don't work every day and night, but sometimes my shifts do overlap and I end up working for twenty hours at a time."

Natsu's eyes went wide at her as he was about to ask a follow up question she tried to politely hold her hand out, "I'm not trying to be rude but I have a few other deliveries to make, so if you don't mind…"

"Yea sure, just a second" Natsu panicked a little as he jumped up from his seat and ran inside the house forgetting Gajeel was out for blood.

He immediately swooped to Laxus and asked for the pizza money, of course Laxus rolled his eyes and pulled some cash out of his wallet for Natsu to hand to Lucy. Gajeel seemed to be too distracted by the TV now to care that Natsu had come back inside. As soon as Natsu ran back out the door though he saw Lucy standing there with her back to him. He walked up beside her and handed her the cash and told her to keep the change as she handed him the pizzas and started to walk away he stopped her again.

"Wait!" he told her.

She turned around trying not to look annoyed that he was causing her to be late on her other two deliveries, she was surprised when she saw him dig his wallet out of his back pocket and hand her a twenty. She looked at him in shock not sure what to say.

"I… meant to tip you last night, I just… I didn't know where to put it… and I didn't want to make you feel violated… or something… I don't usually go to those places."

Lucy blushed at his generous tip and especially blushing remembering what she'd done to earn it before Natsu continued, "I… had a good time. I normally don't like those places, but you made it nice."

He gave her a big beaming smile before she returned his compliment with a "thank you" and a small smile of her own before turning around and walking to her car that was parked in the street and driving off to her next destination.

By the time Natsu had walked back inside half the pizza was gone. Luckily his specialty supreme stuffed crust pizza was unharmed. Laxus had thrown it on an arm chair across from Sting. Gray came down the stairs in nothing but a towel, drying his hair. He reached into one of the boxes before Sting swatted his hand.

"No body wants shampoo on their pizza dude. Go finish drying off then come get some." the blond Groaned.

Gray just stuck his tongue out at Sting before sticking the slice in his mouth and grabbing another one in his hand before jogging back up the stairs to his room.

"At least get a paper plate!" Laxus yelled over his shoulder towards the stairwell.

"Ok, mom!" Gray shouted back down the stairs.

"Goddamn you guys are like preschoolers sometimes" Laxus ground out under his breath.

Rouge had to stifle a laugh but he could appreciate the relationship that they all shared together. It wasn't long until almost everyone had headed upstairs. Gray never came back down because he probably decided to hang out in his room naked again. Sting and Rouge eventually got tired and went to their room that they shared. Theo only people left were Laxus, Gajeel and Natsu.

"What're you working on?" Laxus asked out of curiosity seeing Natsu looking at his phone then scribbling into his notebook.

Everyone had come to recognize the beat up spiral notebook as his music book. He always left it laying around everywhere but no one bothered to look in it since Natsu shared everything he put in there anyway.

"Just a song" he mumbled while biting his pencil.

"Another one?" Gajeel asked in disbelief, "Don't you have like, three unfinished songs now?"

"Yea but this one's different."

"Different how?" Laxus asked crossing his arms.

Natsu shrugged before answering, "It's more like a punk ballad or an anthem then a hard core song like the rest of our stuff. I thought it might be nice to mix it up a little."

"You already mixed up a lot with that white boy rap of yours in that other song, gihihi" Gajeel chuckled.

Natsu smirked before doing the rap again causing Gajeel to smirk from the free entertainment while Laxus seemed to have a pained expression of annoyance on his face.

"Enough" Laxus groaned, "So what's this new song sound like?"

Natsu cleared his throat before singing the first two versus he'd come up with before adding, "I can't think of a good chorus though…"

Laxus shrugged before adding, "Well since you're pretty much the one who writes the lyrics I'll leave that up to you."

"You're no help at all thunder nuts" Natsu groaned.

Gajeel chuckled at the insult before he said, "Hold on a second" and ran upstairs to get his iPad and extra electric guitar upstairs. After coming back down he asked Natsu roughly what music notes he was singing. After picking out some stuff Gajeel slowly got a hold of the melody. Then after the second verse he kept playing, shifting the key slightly. Natsu just nodded before he started having some words come to mind that he sang.

 _I can't believe I'm standing here at all._

 _I can't believe I've made it this far._

 _On my way, with a smile, on my face_

 _See the top, and I'm not falling off._

 _And all I need is a microphone._

 _I'll sing about the things that have been hurting me._

 _It's safe to say all the kids, I relate to their lives,_

 _so just keep holding on~_

Laxus didn't show a lot of enthusiasm, but clapped none the less. He was mostly just happy that Natsu was taking this song writing seriously. He still need to grind out at least six more songs if they were going to have a decent album. They still had several months before their deadline to release the album and announce tour dates, but to Laxus he knew that time would come sooner than they all thought. Natsu just gave Laxus a blank stare of sarcasm at his clapping before plopping down on the couch and scribbling what he'd just sang before he forgot.

"I didn't really feel like working at home tonight, but that wasn't half bad. At least we have something to show Erick tomorrow" Gajeel shrugged.

"We'll have more than that" Natsu grumbled under his breath as his pencil flew across the page, "I just need another hour or so tomorrow and I can probably deal out the rest of the lyrics. It was the melody for the chorus that was throwing me off, but you fixed that so it should be smooth sailing from here."

Laxus nodded before he said, "Try to finish one of the other songs too. If we can manage to give Erick two new songs tomorrow then we might actually get this done fast enough to where we can rehearse for the tour and maybe even have a small vacation before we have to travel non stop for six months."

"Joy, car rides." Natsu groaned.

"It won't be as bad as you think. The record company has a plane they're going to let us use. Flying still doesn't feel good, but it feels a helluva lot better than driving." Laxus told him.

Natsu shrugged before he yawned and said, "I think I'm gunna hit it. I'm exhausted."

Gajeel and Laxus waved without looking at him, eyes glued to the TV. Natsu just rolled his eyes before jogging up the stairs to his room. He opened the door and took a minute to appreciate his blood red painted walls, the dragon mural above his bed, and the assorted CDs, microphones, and technical equipment around his room. He picked up a few articles of clothing that were thrown all over the place and put them in a basket by his door before pulling his current clothes off and throwing them into the hamper. After fishing a clean pair of boxers out of his dresser drawer he turned his bedroom lights out and crawled underneath his covers hoping that the rest of the music would come to him in his sleep.

* * *

Lucy wasn't excited for her shift tonight at Magnolia Lounge tonight. After working at Wakaba's Pizza Palace earlier today she felt drained. She only took the double shift there because she was supposed to have tonight off, but unfortunately Lisanna had called out sick. Lucy counted the hours she had slept. She got off her shift last night at 4am, then went to bed at 5am. She slept until 9am, then got to Wakaba's by 9:30am and was working until 8pm. Her shift at Magnolia's Lounge started at 9pm, and she knew the chances of her getting off before 4am on a Saturday night were next to none. By the end of it all she will have been working 19 hours. She knew she couldn't keep doing this but it was hard finding work, and even harder to make rent on time. She knew her stash of ramen and poptarts were only going to tide her over for so long before she dropped dead from mal-nutrition. Her only saving grace was Mavis's employee meals. This place wasn't exactly known as a restaurant, but they did have a short order menu. Mavis let them eat anything off the menu except steak. If it weren't for that Lucy knew she would probably be twenty pounds underweight instead of just ten. Then again being skinnier than you were supposed to had it's advantages when it came to her job. She never had to worry about a diet since she never had enough food intake for her to be self conscious about it.

"I'm sorry" Mirajane immediately said upon Lucy entering the lounge.

There weren't hardly any patrons there yet since it was just after 8pm. She decided since it wasn't time for her shift yet it wouldn't hurt for her to have a seat at the bar for a minute. Maybe she could even guilt a few shots out of Mira so that she could numb herself a little before she had to start working.

"Lisanna didn't tell me that Elfman was going to take her to look at two college campuses tomorrow. I honestly didn't even know she had reapplied to get back into Croccus university. If she gets in then she'll be leaving here for good, which means we'll be short on hands."

"You mean you'll be short on boobs" Cana corrected as she took a seat at the bar next to Lucy, "Since their hands really don't have much to do with their jobs."

Mirajane just rolled her eyes as she checked all the liquor bottle to make sure the bar was fully stocked before the rush came in soon. Cana smiled at Lucy before her facial expression turned serious again.

"Is there something wrong?" Lucy asked with mild concern.

Cana was usually the one trying to cheer everyone else up since they all knew they had shit jobs that weren't worth the pay for what they had to do. Cana tried to keep it lively whether or not she was sober. Seeing her with a serious facial expression wasn't just creepy to Lucy, but it was scary.

"I'm not supposed to tell either of you this, but Mavis has to shut the place down."

Mira almost dropped the glass she was holding as Lucy looked wide eyed without saying a single thing out of complete shell shock.

"What are you talking about?" Mira whispered angrily trying not to attract the attention of anyone else that might be near by overhearing the conversation.

Cana sighed before she continued, "The building inspector came in the other day and due to the infrastructure of this building it isn't considered a revenue building. It's technically classified as a Class B warehouse style structure. At least, after they pass the new zoning laws next week it will be. Mavis has to shut it down before then or she'll face a fine."

"You have to be kidding" Lucy whined it disbelief.

She was having a hard enough time making rent as it were having to occasionally pull 20 hours work days. Her car repair from last week still wasn't paid off and she owed her land lady two months of rent. She was literally going to have to file for bankruptcy at this rate. There was no way Lucy could swim up from her pool of debt and unfortunate financial circumstances if she lost this job.

"Is there nothing Mavis can do? Is she looking for a new revenue building that will give us a building and zoning permit to put the club there?" Lucy asked frantically.

Cana shook her head as she explained, "This entire area is trying to sweep out any night club activity what so ever, because it's turning into a residential district. That's why the new zoning laws are making this a class B warehouse so it's unusable for any kind of business or revenue exchange. The night club district is over five miles away on the other side of the city and other night clubs who've had a similar problem as ours have already taken every available space. The price got jacked up because of it too. Mavis can't afford the only space they have left, and it's only a quarter of the size we have here now."

"This is awful" Mirajane commented.

She wasn't exactly in the same situation as Lucy. She owned a house just outside the city that was a twenty minute train ride away. She had inherited it when her parents died and she took custody of her two younger siblings. However this job was what paid the bills and put food on the table. She felt that it was unfortunate that Lisanna had ended up working here too. Mirajane thought the work was below Lisanna's capabilities. She was happy her sister was going back to college.

"Mavis said she's working on something for us though" Cana tried to smile, "She said she was going to try and save all of us from having to go back to street life."

"We don't exactly live luxuriously" Lucy sighed.

"But we aren't sex trafficked, abused, and raped on a daily basis for money and survival" Cana ground out bitterly.

Lucy felt bad because it seemed she had struck a personal nerve with Cana. Although Lucy was clueless Mira immediately knew what Cana was referring to. Cana's mother had been abused and prostituted when Cana was a child. She never knew who her father was because it was one of her clients. Her mother gave her a picture of the man, but she'd never met him in her entire life. She never wanted to go back to that life. After Cana's mother died when she was a child she was tossed around in foster care for a few years then finally put in a run down group home for teens until she graduated high school and was promptly kicked out afterwards to fend for herself.

"Is there anything that can go right tonight?" Lucy asked with a droned out sigh.

"Chin up" Mira tried her best to muster a smile, "Looks like it's show time."

When Lucy had turned around she saw that the club was now swarming with horny middle aged men and a few younger ones that were googling at the dancers who were already on the poles. She groaned as she picked up her bag with her outfit and waltzed to the back to change. Tonight was going to be awful.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Don't be shy and leave a review! ;D**

 **I love hearing from you guys and I get an e-mail sent to my phone so I can read the review right after you post it! It always makes me happy when you guys take a minute of your time to tell me your thoughts. It also helps give me feedback so I can make the story better! ^(^0^)^**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Natsu woke up in a cold sweat. For some reason he felt terrified, like a child who thinks the boogy-man is under their bed, but Natsu couldn't remember what it was he was dreaming about. After placing his hand over his face and waiting for his breathing to calm, he stood up and slowly made his way over to the dresser where he put on sweat pants and a t-shirt. He was careful to creep down the stairs quietly since he was sure Laxus had stayed up way too late watching TV and there would be hell to pay if he woke up. After creeping through the living room, Natsu walked into the kitchen and flicked the light on. The lime green walls were a bit too much for his eyeballs at first, but eventually he had a clear enough mind to dig for some coffee in the cupboards. After digging it out he decided it'd be worth it to make a whole pot since he wouldn't be the only one drinking it. Although he only wanted one cup. After pouring some for himself he leaned against he kitchen counter and drank it. He debated on a second cup but he figured that the others would kill him if he didn't leave enough for all of them. After setting his mug down in the sink of dirty dishes he looked over at the clock. It was only 4:30am. There was no way in hell he was usually up this early, but it was late enough in the morning where he felt going back to bed was pointless. He decided that a jog wouldn't be a bad way to start his morning. It wasn't hard to notice that Natsu was high strung and had vast reserves of energy. He tried his best to run himself ragged occasionally to help level out his hyper active tendencies. On top of that he realized that he hadn't done any kind of exercise in the past three days. If he wanted to keep his toned body he knew he would have to be more diligent. After quickly tying his shoes that were by the front door, he dug his earbuds out of his pockets and placed them inside his ears before stealthily slipping out the door.

The streets were pitch black except for the incandescent glow of second rate street lights. Natsu knew that the house they were currently living in was considered rather affluent, but the entire district that encompassed the area around his house was a little less than that. Actually, a lot less than that. It didn't bother him to jog this late at night though because he was in good enough physical condition to ward off any thugs or delinquents, not that he wasn't a delinquent himself. After making it three miles, Natsu looked to his left and saw a park. the jungle gym bars looked like a rather inviting work out. He ran over with a grin on his face like a child as he climbed up onto the bars and started doing chin-ups. After those he swung his legs over the bars and starting doing arial sit ups. While hanging upside down he suddenly recognized a familiar blond waltzing down the side walk. After losing his focus for a second, the sweat from his legs caused him to slip off the bars and plummet head first into he dirt below.

Natsu heard a small squeal before a tiny pair of feet came shuffling over to him. After he regained his senses he looked up and saw that the woman passing by was in fact Lucy. Smiling from the pleasant surprise he chuckled in embarrassment. Then he suddenly shifted from happy to concerned as he scowled at her.

"What are you doing out this late in this part of town?" He questioned her.

Lucy stuttered before grabbing onto her jacket even tighter and looking down at her ridiculous heels. She sheepishly smiled at Natsu before replying, "I just got off of work…"

Natsu's hard face softened before he followed up with, "You always walk home alone this late at night?"

"Not always" she lied, "I don't live that far anyway. Cerberus Apartments is just another half mile away."

"You live there?" Natsu questioned in disbelief.

He inwardly slapped himself though after realizing that he sounded like a pompous, judgmental asshole. Lucy tucked some of her hair behind her ear without looking at him as she shuffled her feet and twisted her mouth in a rather embarrassed expression.

"Do you want me to walk you the rest of the way home?" Natsu offered with a big grin.

"I'm… I'm fine, really." Lucy stuttered as she clutched her purse.

She didn't really know him that well to be honest. It was obvious though that if he wanted to hurt her he would've done so by now. If not the first night he met her then when she delivered the pizzas, or when she was here all alone in the middle of the night in an abandoned park.

"It's really no trouble, I was just exercising so walking you home is just a good excuse to move around a bit more" the pinkette beamed as he got up off the ground and rose to his feet.

Lucy took an unconscious step backwards and was about to trip over her heel when Natsu suddenly grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. After catching her balance Lucy simply stared at his hand on her arm before Natsu realized her discomfort and retracted himself.

"I guess" she mumbled, "If it's not a bother…"

"Not at all!" Natsu enthusiastically smiled before gesturing her to follow him towards the apartments.

"Natsuuuu" Lucy groaned a few minutes after walking down the street, "Slow down! I can't walk fast in these heels!"

"Why don't you bring flats to walk in?" he asked her with a raised brow looking over his shoulder.

Lucy felt a little angry at his comment, because she realized that he was right. If she had consulted her common sense then it would've told her to pack a pair of comfortable clothes in her purse to change into before heading home. It probably would've felt a little safer to dress like she wasn't a stripper too. Her jacket left her legs almost completely exposed from her "work" outfit. It wasn't a long jacket and it only covered down to her hips. Showing that much skin walking down a city street at night was always a gamble, she knew that. However being distracted by her thoughts and inward grumbling she wasn't paying attention to where she was stepping. Right then her pointed heel got caught in a gaping crack of cement and broke off her shoe.

"Come _on_!" She almost completely broke down.

After a few seconds she did have a melt down and simply collapsed on the side walk in tears. Natsu turned around after hearing the thud of her body hit the pavement and saw her sitting there with her broken shoe and river of tears.

"It's just a shoe…" he tried to comfort her, "If you want, I can get you another pair. There's no need to be sad."

"It's too much!" She finally wailed.

It was obviously more than just the shoe if she was this upset. After taking a deep breath Natsu turned around and sat criss cross on the sidewalk right in front of her, "Tell me."

"What?" Lucy sniffled trying to understand why both of them were now occupying the walkway.

Natsu shrugged and crossed his arms before grumbling, "I don't have anywhere else to be for another five hours. I got time to kill."

"But… we're in the middle of the sidewalk."

"Good point" he smirked before turning around squatting in front of her and holding his arms out backwards, "All aboard!" he joked.

Lucy couldn't help smiling a little bit, even if it was melancholy as she climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her head so she could rest it on his shoulder. Natsu smirked a little as he started walking away from the broken heel left sticking out of the sidewalk. It took a lot of effort to keep the feel of her chest on his back from distracting him. There was only about five or so minutes left to walk, so it wasn't a big deal for him to carry her. Although he was a little embarrassed that his shirt was splotched here and there with sweat from his workout.

"Lucy which one's yours?" Natsu asked over his shoulder coming nose to nose with the sleeping beauty.

He blushed furiously as he felt the skin of their faces touch since she wasn't awake to move hers away. When he looked away from her he sighed. She must've been exhausted to have fallen asleep on his back in a matter of minutes. He decided that he would reach into her purse that was against her hip. Normally he was against going through any woman's belongings but in this case he didn't want to wake her and there wasn't another choice.

"Please don't be mad…" he prayed under his breath as he rummaged through her bag without looking until his hands glossed over something metallic.

He pulled it out and sure enough they were keys, and just his luck they had "34B" printed on them. After looking around he noticed the buildings' numbers got larger going towards the back. He walked another two minutes before he came to building 34 and climbed up the metal stair case to the second story where in a big brass letter and numbers on the door it said "34B." After trying to lean forward to keep Lucy on his back, Natsu put the keys in the deadbolt and jiggled the lock until it clicked open. He was astonished at what he saw. There was a cloth, two-person couch, covered in holes and ripped upholstery that sat in her living room, along with a 12" dinosaur TV that probably weight ten times more than his 50" one at home. The kitchen looked empty and so did all the walls. The only thing that stuck out was in one of the two bedrooms there was a desk and chair; no bookshelves, filing cabinets. Just a single wooden desk and chair with nothing on the desk. The saddest sight he saw though was when he opened the other bedroom door and he didn't see a bed. Her room was carpeted and had a one inch foam cot with a pile of blankets. There wasn't a single other thing in the room. Natsu almost felt bad leaving her here in this shit hole. The cracks in the drywall and stained carpet were the least of his concerns. After kneeling down by the cot, Natsu carefully and slowly slid Lucy off of his back and gently put her on the cot before puling some of the blankets partially over her body.

"Wait…" came her voice as he stood to leave.

Natsu bit his lower lip. He was hoping to be able to slip out unnoticed.

"Yes?" he turned around trying his best to grin.

"Don't go…" she pleaded with him.

Natsu slowly felt his resolve melting. He still had to get home, finish the songs in his notebook, and take a shower before he had to go to the studio.

"I haven't told you what happened yet" Lucy sniffled.

Natsu let out a small sigh mixed with empathy and agitation. He sat on the floor by her cot before watching her peel off her broken shoes and throw them across the room with her jacket before plopping back down and stretching. Natsu wouldn't lie that her 'work outfit' was distracting as she tried to tell him her problems.

"The clubs closing" she told him flatly. "Mavis can't keep it open. Although I'm sure that's not really related to you since that's not a place you usually hang out."

"It's not my normal cup of tea, no" he told her before scratching the back of his head, "At least you still have your job at the pizza place, right?"

"Yea. Wakkaba's isn't closing down. But I hardly make anything there. It takes both my jobs just to make rent each month by the skin of my teeth."

Natsu could believe it, considering the state of her apartment and the lack of furnishings and food and decor. He had mixed emotions because he wanted to pity her, but he could see by now that she wasn't the kind who enjoyed being a charity case or looked down on. After letting out a sigh, Lucy turned her body away from Natsu and yawned.

"Is that all that happened?" Natsu asked questioningly.

"Mavis said she's trying to work on saving us by finding us new jobs, but I don't know what I'd be doing. I don't think I can stay in this line of work. The drugs are too expensive and it hurts." She moaned as she grabbed her stomach.

"Drugs?!" Natsu immediately cringed rather shocked.

Of course in the music industry drugs were rampant and he would admit to occasionally smoking the refer every now and then with the band to let lose, but it wasn't a habit and he considered that baby stuff. He was curious what Lucy was talking about.

"Jenny gives us a really good discount in the back of the club. She mostly has morphine mixed with something else. I don't know what all she puts in it, but it's a wonderful numbing feeling that makes me calm and doesn't make me feel bad about what I do for a living."

Natsu was shocked. Lucy didn't look like a drug user. She didn't have any of the scabs on her skin or baggy eyes like most of the trailer trash meth addicts he saw. It was bizarre but considering she said she wanted to be numb at her job at the strip club he didn't doubt she'd done it.

"The withdrawals suck, but at least I have tomorrow morning and afternoon off" she started crying.

Natsu wanted so bad to reach out and hold her, but he had to fight the urge. Even though this strange girl had let him carry her home and tuck her into her apartment, didn't mean he knew her well enough to have physical contact with her that way, even if it was meant to be comforting and innocent. Lucy rolled back over to face him with a familiar dull expression in her eyes. Natsu recognized it from when he'd first seen her at the club. She looked empty. It was really sad, because it was obvious she was on the drug earlier tonight and this was the after effect. It was then and there that Natsu decided he was going to put his foot down. He hardly knew this girl, but he couldn't take it anymore. Whether or not she liked it they're lives, their fates, were now intertwined. Natsu felt that if he walked away from her, and left her to her own devices alone that he would regret it for the rest of his life and always wonder what he could've done.

"When's your rent due?" he asked her suddenly.

"It's due on Tuesday in like… 2 days?" she pondered still confused what time it was because she'd been working such long hours.

"Don't pay it" he told her, "Terminate your lease."

"Why would I do that?" she growled confused, "You want me to be homeless?!"

"No" Natsu growled, "You're going to come live with me."

"whAT?!" she shrieked before Natsu covered her mouth.

"You have neighbors, I'm assuming" Natsu scowled, "It's just after 6am. I don't think they'll appreciate the noise right now."

Lucy nodded before he removed his hand from her mouth. Then he took a deep breath before smiling back at her, "Pack the things you want to take with you. It doesn't look like you have much. If you have today off let's move some of it after I get out of my recording session."

"Recording session?" She asked rather confused.

"Yea. My band has a music label contract. Those were the other people I was with from the club, my bandmates."

Lucy looked at him with wide eyes before saying, "I can't do that. You live in a house full of boys!"

Natsu grinned before telling her, "You'd only be sleeping in my room. You can always go there if they bother you, or I can even talk to laxus about building a small one bedroom guest house behind the garage if it's really that important to you to have your own space."

"I can't possibly impose on you I don't even know your name!" Lucy finally sighed with exasperation after putting the situation in perspective.

Natsu scratched his head realizing how stupid it was that they've met three times, and even had a few conversations and he still hadn't introduced himself.

"I'm Natsu" he held out his hand with the biggest smile she'd seen him wear yet, "Natsu Dragneel."

"Lucy Heartfilia" she took his hand in hers.

Now it was Natsu turn to scream. He screeched before he said, "You're a Heartfilia?!"

Lucy karate chopped him on the head for screeching so loud while she still had a pounding headache, "Yes… but it's a long story…"

Natsu looked at his watch and inwardly groaned. It was 6:30am and he had to jog all the way back home, finish some lyrics, take a shower and be at the studio before 10am. Unfortunately he didn't have time for her long story as much as he actually did want to hear it. He looked up at her with a melancholy expression she read all to well.

"You have to go?" she asked, almost pouting.

"Yea" he sighed as he stood up, "But I promise I'll be back to help you move your things as soon as I get out of the studio. I live about five miles from here so it's not a problem. I'll listen to your story then, hows that?" He asked with a smile as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"That sounds… nice" Lucy smiled trying not to blush.

Natsu smirked at her before turning around to leave her room, and ultimately her apartment. After hearing her front door close Lucy slowly got up to lock the deadbolt behind Natsu, before plodding back to her room and passing out on her foam cot and nest of blankets.

* * *

"Where were you?" Gray asked as he raised one of his brows at Natsu as the pinkette came speed walking into the kitchen.

"Exercise" Natsu stated blankly as he stuck his head in the fridge before chugging half the carton of milk that was in there.

"uh-huh…" Gray snidely remarked under his breath not convinced.

"What?" Natsu asked, "You can't see that i'm sweating and in work out clothes?"

"Are you having them again?" Gray asked after crossing his arms and scowling at Natsu.

"That's vauge" Natsu scoffed as he scrounged around the panty looking for cereal.

"Your night terrors" Gray clarified as he turned his body around to face his friend who was still plundering the pantry.

Natsu popped his head back out after grasping a box of lucky charms before scowling at Gray and growling, "It's none of your damn business."

"Until I wake up to your screaming and breaking shit in the middle of the night."

"It's not that bad" Natsu huffed.

"Yet" Gray immediately retorted.

"tch" Natsu clenched his teeth before dumping the cereal into a bowl and pouring the rest of the milk on it before heading upstairs to his room. He still had work to do, and Gray's negativity was not fostering a creative music genius atmosphere.

After setting his cereal down on his desk he pulled his notebook over from where he had tossed it on the edge. Flipping through the pages he tabbed the three songs he needed to finish first before picking up any of his scribbles or song ideas. After picking through the first two he had written he came back to the ballad and he was writing so fast that he thought that there was a chance the page would light on fire form how fast he was writing. He also managed to scribble the notes and some of the melody so that everyone would be able to pick out their parts during practice later. He even made a drum tab for Gray. Natsu couldn't play drums to save his life, but he knew how to write the music for it, because he knew the sounds and what he was going for, and Gray had knack for picking up on Natsu's horrible tabs and making it work. The other two songs he knew they'd have to talk about a little bit more in terms of the melody and chords and beat and such, but for the most part he was proud of what he'd accomplished. After he did the math in his head he realized that he'd made three songs in about three days. Even if he had some writers block he knew that he'd most likely have the lyric portion of the songs for the album done in the next couple weeks. Then the band would need about two months of constant practice to polish up the music before recording the official album. Makarov would need about another week to finalize the audio and edit it as well as clean it up a bit before releasing the album. Hopefully that would put them at about January to release the album. Erik wanted it done before March, so that was good. After they released the album the band would continue practice, but they'd be able to take it a little easier before they started their tour in May. Then they'd be touring through November of the following year. Natsu honestly wasn't used to thinking this far ahead and it made his head spin. It was only October and he was more focused on what he was going to eat for Thanksgiving next month than when they were going to announce their album release.

"Natsu" the pinkette heard someone growl on the other side of his door while knocking.

"It's unlocked" he called out over his shoulder before turning his attention back to his notebook.

After Laxus walked into his room Natsu rolled his eyes and turned his desk chair away from the blond. Laxus took a seat on his bed about ten feet away from Natsu.

"We need to talk" came Laxus's serious tone.

Natsu mumbled under his breath knowing that whatever this was it wasn't good since Laxus was talking like he was Natsu's father instead of talking to Natsu like he was a fly on the wall like he usually did.

"What is it old man?" Natsu asked sarcastically.

Laxus brushed off his jeering before saying, "If you're having those nightmares again it's only a matter of time before we have a repeat of what happened the last time…"

"I'm not going back on those pills" Natsu instantly cut Laxus off with a searing glare as he turned around in his swiveling chair.

Laxus stood up and took a few steps toward the pinkette before he ground out, "Remember what happened last time Natsu? Do you really want to relive all of that? It was fortunate nobody got hurt, but you went on an absolute rampage. You scared the shit out of everyone. If even just one thing happens that puts someone in danger you _will_ have to go back and get those medications, even if only for a little while."

With that last statement Laxus walked out of Natsu's room and closed the door behind him. Natsu remembered the last time he'd had an episode of night terrors where he'd wake up screaming every night. It was horrible but he decided it was better to keep it to himself. One night the night terrors made him do more than sleep walk, he went on a sleep _rampage_. It took Laxus, Gajeel _and_ Gray making a collaborative effort to bring Natsu down before somebody got hurt. When Natsu finally came-to, Makarov's entire house was trashed. It took them all weeks to put it back together the way it was. After that had happened, Makarov begged Natsu to see someone professionally. Knowing that his current subconscious condition was endangering everyone else he agreed. The doctor had given him several "mood stabilizers" and "tranquilizers" to "calm him." The only thing that had accomplished was making Natsu completely lose his interest in life. He was completely disinterested in just about everything and never had any energy. He even got slightly out of shape losing some of his muscle mass. One day he finally decided that enough was enough and he stopped taking the meds and returned to his energetic self. Experiencing a revitalizing rush from not being anesthetized anymore from medications, he had a new appreciation for live and basically vowed to himself that he'd never go back to those drugs so long as he could help it.

Once Laxus had left, Natsu's concentration was completely warped and all the pinkette could think about were flash backs to his previous bout with night terrors and middle of the night work outs before he finally blew his top. He couldn't write lyrics anymore after being confronted twice in less than an hour. Giving up with a sigh, Natsu closed his notebook leaving the pen on top before he groaned and headed to the shower. He could smell his own BO from the workout this morning, but it didn't start to bother him up until now.

* * *

"I got some important news" Erik came into the band room with a weird smile on his face.

The boys were in the middle of practicing a song together but they abruptly stopped playing and paused, with bank and mildly annoyed faces, as Erik pointed to the doorway into the studio and said, "This is Mavis."

A short woman with long blond wavy hair made her way inside and the boys were astonished she was so small. She looked like a middle schooler.

"Is this the owner of…?" Gray couldn't even finish his sentence feeling like if he said 'strip club' in front of a girl who didn't look a day over 12 he would get in some kind of trouble.

"Yes" Erik knowingly smirked as he assumed what all of them were thinking, "She owns the Magnolia Lounge and has come to me because she's in a bit of a crisis."

"She needs us to come back for more business?" Gray asked sarcastically.

"Not exactly" Mavis cut in as she bowed and said, "My club unfortunately has to close it's doors due to new city zoning laws and ordinances that are making several businesses like mine shut down. My girls have no place to go and I've found places for some of them, but I have a handful left that don't have anywhere to go…"

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Thanks so much for your continued support! ^(^0^)^**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Who?" Sting suddenly asked out of curiosity.

"You probably wouldn't know them but you might've seen them when you were there at your last visit. If you would please, can they be apart of your band as assistants and also as road hands when you go on tour? I know I'm asking a lot but I truly want to help them."

"That's a pretty big favor" Laxus grunted in slight irritation.

The last thing he wanted was to be surrounded by strippers the whole tour. He doubted they could be road hands either because those petite bodies couldn't possibly lift more than maybe 30lbs at a time. They would have to be lifting more than that to assemble stage equipment and setting up stages and rigs for them to play on.

"It doesn't have to be right this second" Mavis said slightly sad at reading the energy in the room.

"Hold on" a voice came from outside before entering the studio.

It was Makarov and he came over to Mavis with a large smile on his face as he approached her before she leaned down to hug him with a shocked look on her face.

"We'll take them" Makarov smiled at her before giving the boys a sharp look.

"I took in three of you personally as children and raised you myself. Besides I owe Mavis a great deal of gratitude for all that she's done for me. The least I can do is employ some of her girls. It's not like they're baggage. They'll be working here then go with us on tour. You'll be happy about it, I promise."

"That's great!" Mavis clapped her hands as she turned to bow her thanks to the boys.

"When do we get to meet them?" Gajeel asked trying to hide the anxiety in his voice.

Mavis smiled at him before she answered, "I have to shut down the club in a few days, so I'm thinking since now I found all the girls a place to go I'll go ahead and make tonight the last night. You'll be able to meet them soon enough."

"Can they come tonight to meet them?" Erik asked with a mischievous grin.

Mavis already knew Erik just wanted another excuse to go bother Kinana so she replied, "Kinana's included in my little proposition to you so she'll be your employee after tonight as well, but you men are welcome to come support the girls tonight on their last night if that's what you'd like to do. It'll give you a good chance to maybe even get to know them a little better."

"I don't think I want to get to know them _that_ well" Laxus grumbled under his breath thinking of a scandalously clad woman sitting in his lap trying to tell him her life story.

"We'll be there" Makarov informed her.

* * *

It was a Sunday, so they finished their practice early without recording anything due to the fact that it wasn't polished enough. Erik was pleased with their progress though, especially Natsu's song writing. The pinkette was practically blowing his expectations away and going through the roof. Natsu was excited as he bolted out of the studio and took off running, although he confused the hell out of everyone else because he was walking in the opposite direction of their house.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sting asked mildly amused but mostly confused.

"Who knows" Gajeel sighed in irritation before turning on his heel to head back home.

After jogging for a few miles Natsu arrived at Lucy's apartment and bent over resting his hands on his knees while he caught his breath before reaching up and knocking on her door. After a few seconds he stood up strait and Lucy opened her door with a slightly wide eyed expression. Natsu was standing right in front of her with a grin on his face.

"Come in" she smiled back at him.

Natsu was glad that he was finally getting to see her smile. She hadn't smiled the whole time she was at the club with him, and she hadn't smiled at all until he had brought her to her apartment here earlier this morning. It gave him a warm feeling that she was finally getting comfortable around him.

"So what are we moving?" He asked her enthusiastically.

Lucy scratched the back of her head smiling sheepishly as she confessed, "Well honestly most of my stuff was hand-me-down garbage, so I put it int he dumpster. I just have a suit case of my clothes, and a wooden desk…"

"Well you get the suitcase and I'll carry your desk, how does that sound?"

"Wait, can you really do that? Do you have a car? How are we getting it there?" Lucy asked confused.

"Well no I don't have a car, because I get too damn motion sick to drive one of those things, but I've got two legs. I can call you a cab though if you don't want to walk that far. It's kind of about two miles past the club…"

"No it's fine" Lucy told him, "My suitcase rolls. I'm just worried about you carrying a desk that far."

"It'll be good exercise" Natsu told her as he squeezed one of his biceps, flexing it so she could see his muscles.

Lucy had to hold in a blush as she said, "Actually, I have a friend I could probably call. She has a truck and she could probably get the desk…"

Natsu sighed a little as he said, "I guess that's ok. I'll just lay down in the backseat or something…"

Lucy sighed as she dialed her cellphone contact and said, "Hey I have a fa-"

All of a sudden Lucy had to hold her phone away form her ear as Cana was incoherently screaming into the phone. While Lucy found it frustrating that her ear drum almost exploded, she could at least tell it was happy screaming. After a few seconds when Cana had calmed down, Lucy held the phone back up to her ear.

"Cana?…" she asked confused.

"Mavis did it!" Cana shouted, "She found us new jobs! And the best part is we'll be assistants, not strippers!"

"What?" Lucy asked in disbelief, "Mavis really did it already?"

Natsu perked his ears up at the conversation as he said, "Oh yeah, she came by the studio today asking for jobs. Gramps told her not to worry about it and that there was plenty of stuff to get done, wait, is this the same Mavis?"

Lucy took her phone down from her ear then asked, "Wait, what?"

* * *

"This is him?" Cana asked with a raised brow as she stood on Lucy's doorstep.

The blond scratched the back of her head as she mumbled, "Yea, I guess…"

Cana leaned over and sniffed him, causing Natsu to stumble backwards a bit from the unexpected contact.

"You run here or something? You smell like sweat." She asked rather impertinently.

"You smell like booze" Natsu shot back crossing his arms.

Cana smiled at him before she grinned, "We're gunna get along great."

Lucy sweat dropped, not quite following the conversation as she walked in and showed Natsu the desk she wanted. He found it weird that out of all of her furniture she would hold attachment to the seemingly least valuable slab of wood in the whole apartment. He didn't bother asking her though, cause after cleaning out the apartment she stopped by the leasing office on their drive out and gave the land lady her keys before Cana drove them off towards Natsu's house. He kept trying to give verbal directions but he was so motion sick he was practically gargling on his acid reflux trying not to barf. He finally took Lucy's phone and entered the address into her GPS app. After pulling into the driveway Cana let out a long whistle.

"Sweet diggs" she said as she pulled Natsu half unconscious out of the backseat of her cab and dropping him on the driveway.

"Cana!" Lucy growled before she crouched down on the ground next to him hugging her knees, "Are you ok?"

"Yea" he groaned, "Just… give me a minute…"

"You taking this shit?" Cana asked with her hands on her hips pointing to the desk and suitcase in the bed of her truck.

Lucy stood up and walked over before pulling her suitcase out and when she turned around she saw Natsu was already back up on his feet and walking over to get the desk out of the trunk. He managed to carry it the same way as before, by holding it over his head with one hand and the chair in the other hand. Lucy wouldn't lie that she thought his rather obscene strength was sexy.

"This way Luce" he smiled at her as they walked up the front steps.

Lucy followed up the familiar steps. She'd only been here once, but it still felt familiar enough to not make her as nervous as she thought she'd be. After walking through the front door she was suddenly faced with a scowling man who had the broadest shoulders she'd ever seen, besides's Mira's brother Elfman, standing in the doorway to the kitchen on the far end of the living room.

"eeeeeekk!" she screeched as he glared at her.

"Why's _she_ here?" Laxus growled at Natsu.

"None of your damn business" Natsu countered.

"It is my damn business. All our names are on this lease, not hers, why is she moving her stuff in here?"

"I'm sorry, I ju-" Lucy started to apologize before Natsu cut her off.

"Don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry for. Ignore him, just come put your stuff down."

Laxus glared at the two of them as they made their way up the stairs. Natsu quickly closed his bedroom door behind him and locked it before more people ended up getting in Lucy's face. He knew that he hadn't asked permission for her to move in here yet, but he figured as long as she was in his room not taking up anyone else's space then it was ok. After putting her desk down effortlessly against the wall next to his, he scooted the wooden chair into it and turned around with a big smile.

"Make yourself comfortable" he beamed at her.

Lucy scratched the back of her head blushing with a twitching smile before she responded, "I… I don't think that's possible."

"Why not?" Natsu asked genuinely confused.

"Well…" Lucy started playing with her hands after setting her back down at there feet, "We are two separate genders, in the same room… and I see there's only one bed in here… and…"

Natsu's cheeks started turning red at what she was insinuating as he grumbled, "Well I was planing on sleeping on the couch at the foot of the bed… so you don't have to be that nervous about it."

"No, let me." Lucy instantly cut in, "You're the one who's nice enough to let me stay here for the time being, so let me sleep on the couch. I'm sure it's still more comfortable than my old cot that I had on my floor."

Natsu looked at her with a raised brow before he shrugged and said, "suit yourself."

Lucy sighed as she laid her suitcase down and unzipped it. She was in desperate need of a hot shower and a nap before she had to start her shift at work tonight. After explaining to Natsu she wanted to take a shower he told her where down the hall the bathroom was and she grabbed her towel out of her bag with her soaps and walked towards the bathroom before closing the door behind her and making short work of removing all her sweaty clothes. She'd gotten quite dirty hauling all of her old and useless things to the dumpster. The TV was especially heavy. She was glad when it was all done but didn't have a sofa or cot to take a nap on, so she hadn't slept since she woke up from her short slumber on her cot on the floor.

After Lucy was done folding her clothes and putting them off to the side she took a good look at the bathroom and was rather astounded. The tub was huge and the walk in shower had three spouts that shot out at you in different directions. Eager to get herself drenched in hot water she hopped into the walk in shower and immediately turned the water on. It was sweet bliss as she felt the water washing away the filth of the day. Humming to herself, she smiled as she scrubbed her scalp. After a few minutes though she heard a slight noise and looked over her shoulder to see a dark haired figure standing in the doorway. She thought she was seeing things, but when the water washed out of her eyes and she saw the man's open mouthed expression of embarrassment and shock.

Simultaneously Lucy screeched as Gray started shouting. Of course after hearing the ruckus Rouge and Sting came out of their rooms to see what Gray was yelling about when they both looked at Lucy and turned red in the face before getting out of the doorway. Laxus of course was smart enough to stay away from the bathroom doorway before reaching with his back to the bathroom and closing the door. Moments after Natsu peaked his head out of the door to see four of his roommates turning towards him scowling except Rouge who was just red as a tomato.

"Oi oi!" Gajeel came up the stairs growling, "What's all the noise?"

"There's a girl in the shower!" Sting said before he slapped his hands over face as he started blushing.

"Girls can take showers too" Gajeel commented with an annoyed grunt.

"Yea well it'd be nice if they could lock the bathroom door" Gray sneered as he clenched his teeth trying not to think of the naked body he just saw.

Natsu's eyes widened as he asked, "you didn't…"

Gray didn't answer him as he huffed and trudged away down the hall back to his room. Laxus turned to Natsu with a scowl as he shook his head and walked back downstairs with Gajeel. Sting and Rouge just stood there for a minute blushing before they too shuffled away. Lucy at that point made short work of rinsing herself off quickly and wringing out her hair before drying herself off. She could hear the conversation on the other end of the door as well. She mentally slapped herself for her carelessness. Not only was she embarrassed that three men in the house had now seen her completely exposed, she felt like she was making Natsu have a hard time as well. She knew that his roommates couldn't possibly be happy with the situation that just happened. Once she was done pouting about what had just happened it suddenly dawned on Lucy that she hadn't brought clean clothes to change into.

"Shit…" she mumbled under her breath before cracking the bathroom door and peaking out into the hallway.

Half the people in the house had just seen her birthday suit, what did her in a bath towel matter? That didn't mean she wanted to run into anyone though. After looking up and down the hallway and seeing no signs of life she grabbed her dirty clothes and slipped out down the hall towards Natsu's room. She heard people go down the stairs so she assumed that he had gone down the stairs with the others. However when she opened his bedroom door and quickly closed it behind her she saw him sitting at his desk looking over a notebook. After the light slam of the door he jerked and turned to look over his shoulder before his face turned bright red.

"eeeekkk!" Lucy squealed trying not to be too loud as she ducked behind the bed.

Natsu scratched the back of his head feeling a bit embarrassed before he said, "I'll turn back around, I promise I won't look. I… didn't mean to."

"No it's ok," she sighed peaking her head up over the bed to make sure Natsu was really turned around, "It's my fault for not bringing clean clothes with me."

Sure enough when she looked she saw the back of his pink spiky hair as his hand was slightly shaking, holding a pen, while the other was covering his face.

"If you want you can just grab something out of your suitcase and change in the closet" he said while pointing over his shoulder at a wooden door without turning around.

Lucy tried to smile but ended up making a face that looked slightly pained as she grabbed her things and scurried behind the closed door. Once inside she was surprised at the room she had. She could completely spin in a circle with her arms out and not touch anything in the closet. It was about half the size of her apartment's bedroom, which is a pretty big size for a closet as far as she was concerned. Even though she was about to change into her work clothes which ironically had less coverage than the bath towel she somehow felt less embarrassed about it. It seemed more embarrassing to be in the towel since it was some kind of understanding that she was _naked_ underneath the easily removed sheet of fabric.

After she slipped into her strappy burgundy dress that really just looked like an oversized, cut-up t-shirt, she walked back out into Natsu's room walking towards her suitcase barefoot to pick out some shoes for later that night.

"L-lucy" Natsu stuttered as he started blushing, "Do you not have any… regular clothes?"

"Huh?" Lucy asked before she realized the way Natsu was looking at her and tried to cover some of her body with her hands, "I'm sorry… I just, have gotten used to it I guess. I'll go-"

Before Lucy could finish her sentence and try and dig through her suitcase for some 'decent' clothes Natsu had gotten up from his desk and opened one of his dresser drawers tossing her a plain coral colored t-shirt. It hit her in the face, but she quickly slipped it over her head and pulled it down. Luckily it was longer than her tight revealing dress and almost went down to her knees. Natsu heaved a sigh of relief before plopping back down in his chair and running a hand through his hair before turning back around.

"Sorry…" Lucy whispered under her breath thinking Natsu couldn't hear her.

"It's fine" he huffed, surprising Lucy with his hearing capability, "I just don't want to look at you in a way that might make you uncomfortable. And make me even more uncomfortable" he mumbled the last part while trying to shift his jeans around to hide his slowly dying errection.

Lucy looked up surprised as she blushed realizing that even though he most definitely found her appealing in those clothes, he didn't want to look at her like a piece of meat. The gesture in of itself was more of a compliment then if he had looked at her like she was the sexiest woman on earth. After sliding off of the bed where she was sitting, Lucy crouched by her suitcase and pulled out a moleskin journal and went over to her desk which was right next to Natsu's. After sitting down she opened it and began writing, occasionally looking over at Natsu as he tapped on the pages of his notebook humming to himself. She knew what he was writing, she could tell by the way he spaced out the lines that it was lyrics for new songs. She smiled to herself thinking that she was getting a preview as she heard him hum to himself, scribbling words.

Natsu tried not to flinch when Lucy sat down next to him. As much as he loved the company he felt like she was more of a distraction with her creamy white legs still mostly exposed, even though most of the temptation was gone with her cleavage fully covered. He couldn't help peeking over at them occasionally before mentally slapping himself to focus on what he was doing. He also realized she was writing however it was definitely not song lyrics. He saw dates written at the tops of the pages which made him instantly think it was a diary. He smirked to himself and made a mental note to try and steal it later, just for fun.

Before Natsu even realized it he was writing a completely different song altogether.

 _Sexy girl, i just fell in love._

 _You should try it it's a helluva drug._

 _Like O.M.G. you make me come, come, complete!_

 _I'm looking for reasons,_

 _I'm begging and pleading._

 _I'm dreaming of calling you mine._

 _You keep me st-st-stuttering, stumbling,_

 _Fumbling over my lines._

 _Without you girl, I'm not alright,_

 _I'm not okay… (yeah!)_

Natsu smirked to himself. Obviously he'd have to end the song a different way just so Lucy didn't realize that the song was partly about her. He blew threw all the verses and made the last part along the lines of "don't give up on me, it's not what it seems, we can't stop this tragedy." He immediately had to shield his lyrics realizing Lucy was looking over at his paper before he scowled at her playfully.

"Don't read mine if you aren't going to share" he growled with a knowing smirk since she was writing in her diary.

Lucy looked away as she started blushing and griped back at him, "I can't share this with you! It's my _diary_! It's way too personal for me to share with someone else!"

Natsu lightly chuckled before he flipped his notebook shut and looked at the clock hanging not he wall, "shit" he said under his breath.

Lucy raised a brow before Natsu turned around and explained, "The guys were going to go to the club tonight. Why, I have no idea, but I'm sucked into it because Makarov says so and Mavis personally invited us."

"That's not so bad" Lucy tried to smile, "I'll be there too."

"Yea but you'll be wearing…" Natsu had to stop himself as he was looking at Lucy and turning red in the face trying to imagine the outfit she'd had on earlier before he threw a t-shirt at her.

Lucy started blushing from his reaction too before she said, "Well you don't have to look."

"That's not easy when you're _right in front of me_." Natsu grumbled assuming that Mavis was going to put all the girls that would be taking on jobs through the record company and working with them in their faces to 'introduce' themselves.

Natsu slapped a hand over his face before he walked into his closet to change his clothes for tonight. It wasn't that what he had on was bad, but he felt that it was a little smelly since he'd been running around and moving Lucy's things. He wanted to smell decent without taking a shower and putting on new clothes was about the next best thing.

* * *

"This wasn't my idea" Laxus grunted under his breath as he walked inside the club.

Lucy had managed to snag a ride with them since she was already at the house and everyone was trying to avert their eyes as best they could since she wasn't wearing Natsu's t-shirt anymore and was in her average work clothes. After the awkward walk into the club Lucy slipped away into the back and Natsu couldn't help but wonder what she was doing. He felt really uneasy since she had mentioned that some chick named Jenny was giving her drugs to help her get through her shifts. The last thing he wanted to do was see a drugged Lucy throwing her weight around like a lifeless doll. Honestly he really didn't want to see her here at all. He just wanted her to put on normal clothes and go back to his house. However he thought positively as he realized that Mavis said this was the last night the club as open. That being said, it was absolutely packed with people who were hoping to get a farewell lap dance and Natsu had to end up propping himself against a wall off to the side. He sulked and crossed his arms not caring what Gajeel and Laxus were doing. He was a little worried about Sting and Rouge though. Those two seemed to lose themselves in here last time. However he wasn't too worried about it with Makarov here. It wasn't his job to babysit everyone. He wasn't exactly the best one for the job anyway.

* * *

"Hey" Jenny walked up to Lucy, "You good for tonight?"

"I don't know…" Lucy mumbled to herself, "I'm not sure if I really want to tonight. There are a few people here that I know and I don't think they'll appreci-"

"They don't have to know" Jenny cut in, "Besides, since tonight its he last night, it's on the house."

With a wink Jenny walked away leaving a small packet in Lucy's hand before sashaying away to the next girl who'd fallen for her magic medicine that seemed to cure all their emotional ailments.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Leave a review for me! ^(^0^)^**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Lucy didn't know why she'd caved, but she did. The worst part was she knew that she had completely gone overboard with it too. Jenny usually only gave her enough for one hit, but apparently in the spirit of generosity she'd given Lucy a little extra, and the blond was feeling beyond detached. She almost felt like she was in someone else's body watching her own. The most disappointing sight though was when she had managed to pull herself up onto a pole that was elevated on a pedestal and saw Natsu standing about twenty feet away, she couldn't even smile at him. Having next to no control over her body with no emotions was nice, except for when it led you to be a complete zombie and not even be able to show your friends you recognize they're there. She knew that she was in trouble the second Natsu's smile turned to a a slight frown as his eyes lost their gleam and became hard as stone and the line of his mouth curled slightly downwards. He knew.

Natsu was feeling slightly awkward but happy when he saw Lucy finally make an appearance that night, but his excitement left him when he saw her make direct eye contact with him and make no facial expression what so ever. She even seemed to be having trouble maneuvering around the pole and pulling herself up. He didn't miss any of the signals that she was high as a kite. Fortunately for Natsu he thought that she'd be fine tonight since when Lucy was in the shower he took it upon himself to carefully shuffle through all of her things to make sure she didn't bring any drugs with her just in case. Natsu wasn't squeaky clean either since he and the wanna-be twins occasionally lit a bong together much to Laxus's disgust, but he never hit the hard stuff and he never intended to. Unfortunately Gajeel had a hard time coming down off heroin and Gray used once or twice with him, but fortunately quit before he drowned in it. There wasn't a doubt in Natsu's mind if Gajeel saw anything remotely resemblant of meth, heroin, or cocaine that he'd start using the stuff again. Drugs were usually an ongoing struggle for most musicians, but Natsu tried to clean up his act as best he could and tried to keep his bandmates on the strait and narrow. He knew that later tonight was _not_ going to be fun when she crashed. At the rate she was going it wasn't an if, just when.

"Hey shortie" Gajeel smirked as he slid into a stool at the bar.

Levy turned to look over her shoulder at the pin cushion before she smiled with a slight twinge of irritation at Gajeel's annoying nick name, "Yes?"

"Can I get a gin and tonic?" He asked her with a toothy grin.

"Make that two" Laxus grunted as he sat down at the bar next to Gajeel with a begrudging huff.

"Looks like we get to hang out again" Mirajane suddenly walked over to lean on the bar with her elbows talking to Laxus and Gajeel while Levy made their drinks.

"Aa" Laxus grunted while looking down at his phone.

"I'm glad you guys came back" Mira sighed trying to get Laxus's attention away from the screen in his hand, "We don't get many customers who actually behave themselves."

"It's sad, but I'd rather you sit here and call me names than put up with the drunk skunk down there" Levy pointed to the disheveled man down the bar out of earshot who obviously was on a week long drinking binge.

"Levy" Mira scolded her, "It's not nice to call customer's names. If he heard you I'm pretty sure you just lost your tip."

"It'd be a miracle if he heard me over this music and his own groaning while he drowns in that glass. Besides I'm not sure he was going to tip anyway." Levy sneered before walking down the bar to check on him.

"I heard this place is closing" Laxus finally set his phone down and looked at Mira with a curious glance for her reaction.

"I know" she sighed, "I was really worried about where I was supposed to go, seeing as my sister is still in college and my brother barely supports himself, he couldn't have me depending on him. But it seems like Mavis has lined something up for us so I'm hopeful that it's better than this. She always takes good care of us."

"What do you mean by that?" Gajeel chimed in, also curious about the conversation.

Mira scratched the back of her head as Levy walked back over and mumbled, "I really don't know if I should tell you, because it's against the ordinance code for this building and I'm pretty sure that it's not totally legal even though it's nothing bad…"

Laxus raised his eyebrow now as Mira had his full attention before Levy coughed and cut right to the chase, "A lot of the girls here are homeless. Mavis let's them sleep in the storage unit in the back of this place. Some of the girls work hard enough and long enough to where they can scrape by renting somewhere cheap, but a lot of the girls are unfortunate and have to sleep in the back."

"Like who?" Gajeel asked already debating if he knew the answer.

"Like me" Levy sighed as she poured herself a shot of 99 proof banana liquor.

"I'm sorry" Gajeel ground out under his breath.

"Lucy was about to move into the warehouse, but she gave up sleep and picked up a second job to make rent. She's honestly worse off then me."

"Why do you say that?" Laxus crossed his arms at Levy's suddenly sympathetic tone.

"Well," Levy heaved a big sigh, "Lucy's not exactly an addict, but she can never say no to Jenny, unfortunately."

"Who's Jenny?" Laxus's brows furrowed not liking where this was going.

"Some of the girls have a hard time dealing with their work. Mira and I are lucky to be behind the bar, but the girls who dance on the poles and give lap dances have a hard time emotionally with throwing their bodies at men shamelessly, so they take her drugs to make it easier. I don't even know what it is, but I can always tell when a girl is on it because her eyes are glassed over like a china doll, and she's completely emotionless too. The worst part though is when the girls are done working and come back to the storage unit to sleep they have horrible withdrawals in just hours without the drug. Once they get through it though they don't usually crave the drug again, unless Jenny throws it back in their face because of the detaching benefits of it. It's hard for some of them to say no, like Lucy."

"I'll be back in just a second" Laxus excused himself from the bar as he walked through the crowd to find Natsu leaning up against one of the walls.

"You realize that you brought a drug addict into our house" Laxus scowled at Natsu after standing in front of the pinkette with his arms crossed, "You know how hard if was for Gajeel to stop, and I don't want the others even thinking of touching the stuff."

"She already admitted it to me before I brought her to the house, but don't worry. I looked through all her stuff while she was out of the room and she's clean. She only gets the stuff here." Natsu grumbled trying to look over Laxus's shoulder to keep an eye on the blond they were talking about.

"I hope you're right. Because the first time I see any brown gunk, white powder or crystals in bags she's out of the house, period." Laxus grunted before turning around to look at what Natsu was starting at.

Laxus clearly saw what Levy was talking about with Lucy as the blond seemed to lethargically spin around the pole without so much as a smile and her eyes glassy like clear plastic. After shaking his head and walking away, Laxus walked back to the bar to continue his conversation with the girls and Gajeel. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he enjoyed his small haven with two girls who seemed reasonably intelligent and Gajeel who was the least hyper and loud of the group.

* * *

Gray was trying to sit in a booth with Erik when a woman with shoulder length blue hair in a curly bob at the bottom was suddenly in his lap with her arms around his neck. He wasn't particularly comfortable with the given situation, especially since Rouge and Sting were laughing from a few feet away. All Gray wanted to do tonight was have a few drinks and honestly be left alone. He was definitely curious about the girls that would be working for their record company and touring with them, but at the same time he thought that an e-mail with pictures and short descriptions would suffice just as well. Even though Gray felt the attention from Juvia was unwarranted he did have the most a-typical club goer's apparel on. He was wearing baggy black cargo pants with chains and a button up shirt that was all the way _un_ -buttoned exposing his chest and abs.

"I'm sorry" Gray finally ground out, "But could you please sit next to me instead of _on_ me?"

He didn't quite have the heart to completely shoo the girl away since she wasn't groping him or molesting him, yet. After the girl slid off his lap and sat next to him in the booth he felt like a weight was lifted off of him in more than just the girl's body weight. He was no longer battling his hormones as well. Even though he didn't want her sitting on his lap, he did find the girl strangely attractive even though she seemed to be almost psychotic.

"Juvia is sorry. Juvia didn't think that you didn't want her in your lap since you seemed to like it last time."

Gray's face turned a little red as he tried to cover it with one hand before looking over at Erik who seemed perfectly distracted with a purple haired woman right in front of him.

"I… I wasn't thinking strait" Gray tried to justify himself.

"It's ok" Juvia purred while grabbing onto Gray's arm, "Juvia just wants to make Gray-sama happy."

Gray raised a brow and twitched a little at the honorific she attached onto his name. No other women talked to customer's that way, so it wasn't part of the club's role playing or something bizarre like that. It made Gray uneasy but considering she wasn't insulting him he didn't bother telling her to stop.

"How much longer, Erik?" Gray asked from across the table.

Erik broke his attention away from the dancing patrons and employees to look at Gray's annoyed face before glancing down at his watch for the time. "About two more hours."

" _Hours_?" Gray repeated in irritation, "Couldn't we have waited to come here until later so we didn't have to sit in here for so long?"

"Drinks are on the house and you seem to not be lonely over there, so why are you complaining?"

Gray gritted his teeth before he growled, "These sort of things aren't exactly my favorite past times."

"Well since this place is closing you don't have to worry about it anymore after tonight." Erik sighed leaning his head down on his hand with his elbow resting on the table.

* * *

Natsu had watched Lucy for over an hour now and it was obvious that she was slowing down. He had to resist the urge to follow her when he saw her step down off the stage and poles to go to the back. It was obvious that the "employees only" sign on the door didn't apply to him since surely all the employees here were female. However when he turned around someone by the bar caught his eye. Her hair was blond like Lucy's but much longer and bumped up into a wavy pony tail. She wasn't dressed like the other girls, she had on jeans and a halter top. However he noticed a lot of the girls migrate over to her and have a small conversation before walking away. It only took him a few minutes to realize she was slipping packets into their hands while sipping on her drink at the bar. Natsu ground his teeth as he walked over to the woman.

"I didn't realize this was a supermarket, why so many free samples?" He asked her scowling having already cut to the chase.

"Oh my" she flirtatiously gasped, "I haven't had a male customer for a while. What can I do you for?"

"You can leave" he told her crossing his arms with a ferocious look in his eyes.

"You aren't the manager here, you can't make me do anything. If you aren't going to do any business with me, then kindly go away, you're keeping some of my customers away with your scary face."

"You're Jenny, right?" he asked her as he put his hand down on the bar getting close to her face.

Jenny simply put her drink down and crossed her arms to return his fierce look, "My name is none of your concern unless you're buying."

"I'm not usually one to hit women" Natsu growled, "But I got nothing against picking them up and throwing them out."

"Just try it" she told him as she inched closer to his face.

Natsu didn't have to be told twice. He hefted the screaming woman over his shoulder and walked towards the front doors. Lucy stood in the doorway to the back with the door cracked so Natsu couldn't see her, but she was trying to get to Jenny. Whatever Jenny gave her sadly left her system too fast and she needed more. Unfortunately it seemed Natsu found Jenny before she was able to, and was now carrying her out. She knew that if she stopped Natsu that it wouldn't look good for her. She already admitted to using a few times. The last thing she wanted to do was tarnish what little faith he had left in her.

It didn't take Mavis that long to step out of her office after seeing the commotion on the security camera. It was obvious that Jenny had it coming and Mavis was not very fond of having the blond looming around her girls offering comfort in the form of drugs they couldn't afford to begin with. Mavis didn't have a drug policy because her first and foremost concern for the girls was shelter and food, so she tended to be a pushover when it came to behavior like this. However it was apparent that her presence was necessary in order to deal with this issue with as little incident as possible.

Natsu had gotten to the front doors when a voice behind him asked, "What are you doing?"

The pinkette turned around to see Mavis standing there with her arms crossed. It was obvious that he had caused a problem and that he was in trouble now because of it. However he couldn't help but sheepishly smile as he said, "Taking out the trash."

"How dare you!" Jenny screeched while pounding his back from being slung over his shoulder.

"Trash doesn't talk" Natsu groaned as he stuck his pinky in his ear to try and clean out some of the damage her screeching was causing.

"Unfortunately I can't allow you to throw Jenny out since you aren't an employee" Mavis sighed.

Mavis hated technicalities since she really wanted Jenny to get thrown out, but Jenny had dirt on the place since she knew Mavis let some of the girls stay here after hours and some other things she did to pull strings in order to take care of the girls. Mavis couldn't afford to have Jenny rat her out.

Natsu whined as he set Jenny back on the ground. Jenny immediately reared her hand back to slap Natsu's face until he grabbed her arm and then hissed right at her, "If you don't leave right now I'm going to call the cops for drug possession and distribution."

"You can't" she smirked triumphantly, "You see Mavis here has some skeletons in the closet behind this place and if those skeletons get exposed it could be bad for business."

"It's already closing what should Mavis care?" Natsu looked over to the shorter of the two blonds for affirmation but didn't receive any. "Why?"

"There are still fines and penalties that can be enforced if evidence proves that they were broken at any point in time. It doesn't just apply to a business that's currently open. Sadly this skank managed to get one of the girls to tell a little too much and now Jenny's made that bar stool over there her personal drug den." Mavis growled before turning on her heel to return to her office and hope that in less than two hours this whole nightmare will be over.

Natsu still wasn't finished despite his walking away from Jenny. He looked over his shoulder at her before threatening, "If you sell one more thing to Lucy so help me kami I will destroy you and your business. Stay away from her."

Jenny scowled a little. Lucy was her most gullible customer and an easy sell. While she wasn't Jenny's biggest customer, because Lucy toughed out the withdrawals so that she only took the drug while she worked instead of recreationally at home in her spare time, but it was still easy to get Lucy to buy. Jenny was counting on the blond's business tonight after her generous sample she handed to Lucy. After Natsu made his way back over to the bar where he was bothering Laxus, Jenny noticed the pinkette was still watching her like a hawk.

"J-Jenny… do you have a bit more. I've only made $50 in tips so far tonight, but do you have anything for $20?" Lucy asked timidly from behind the cracked door she was still standing in.

Lucy knew Mavis would bust her ass if she saw Lucy just standing there instead of being out on the floor. In fact Lucy was surprised Mavis hadn't noticed her absence yet. Lucy was a rather popular source of eye candy at the club along with her co worker Erza. Mira was the next most popular person, but she worked the bar so most men didn't really bother to tip her much since she wasn't as scandalously clad.

"Sorry sweets, no can do." Jenny sighed.

"Why not? It's $20 not enough, I mean, I can't really afford it but what about $30?"

"It's not the money dearie. You know I'd cut you a good deal since I know how hard it is making ends meet. Your little boyfriend decided to intimidate me into not selling to you, so you'll have to pick your fight with him."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Lucy almost shouted in a frustrated whisper trying to keep their conversation from being overheard.

"Oh? Well, we'll see how long that lasts" Jenny crossed her arms and practically laughed.

Lucy had a downtrodden look on her face as she already felt the headache from withdrawals setting in. The stuff did it's job and worked fast, but it also tended to leave the system fast and start the cravings early on. Usually Lucy managed to use enough of it to hold off the withdrawals until she was curled up in her bed at her apartment, but for some reason that large dose and hit her faster, harder, and left her devastated. Jenny felt for her and could see the look of mild agony on Lucy's face. She didn't like that Natsu was threatening her but she decided that she could at least do the blond a small favor.

"C'mere" she told Lucy as she made a gesture with her hands for Lucy to walk out from behind the door.

"Why?" Lucy hissed knowing Natsu was probably searching for her like a hawk.

"I promise he can't get mad at me for giving you this. It's just a small something to help." Jenny said.

"Can I get it for $30?" Lucy asked griping her head in pain.

"You can have it for $15. They're left overs from another deal, and no body buys these things anyway. They don't give you a high, they just keep the withdrawals away for a little while." Jenny said as she dug through her bag for a small box.

She pulled out a small stick that was sealed like a piece of gum as she held it out to Lucy, "It's bupremorphine. You might know it by the name Suboxone. You put it under your tongue until it dissolves. It won't give you the same effect as my good stuff, but it'll at least delay your headache for a good while."

Lucy shuffled through her bra and pulled out 15 $1 bills for Jenny. The woman smiled a little in sympathy, before handing Lucy the strip. Without fail though, Natsu noticed Lucy right by Jenny while they were talking and made his way over there and almost ripped the strip out of Jenny's hand until she swatted his hand away.

"It's not drugs" she sneered at him before correcting herself, "Well… not drug drugs, like what you're thinking."

Natsu gave Lucy a scowl of disapproval before gently plucking it out of her hand and looking at the wrapper then asking, "Where did you get a prescription?"

"I have connections." Jenny smirked, "Besides, all that's going to do to your little girlfriend there is take her headache and shakes away for a while. No one buys those from me usually because there's no euphoria or benefit other than delaying withdrawals."

"You promise you aren't selling her something illicit? This has the word _morphine_ in the chemical name, why do I get the feeling your lying and giving her an opiate?"

"It's a mock opiate. Look, I'm not a doctor but I'll stupefy it so even your pea brain can understand. There are receptors in the brain that this thing basically blocks, so that chemicals don't get to the nerves and cause the body to crave the drug with violent symptoms. It doesn't stimulate them like the drug they're craving would, but it keeps the body from feeling deprived. Does that make enough sense to you? If you think I'm lying google it moron."

Natsu took out his phone not wanting to take any chances. He read about five minutes of the wikipedia page that popped up before he slowly handed the strip back to Lucy and whispering in her ear, "We'll talk later."

She didn't like the sound of that. Somehow it made her skin crawl in two ways. Having his hot breath on her skin made her antsy, in addition to his seemingly agitated tone which made her anxious in a more doomsday type way. She felt like she'd blown it. Natsu was willing to have her move in with him so readily after hardly knowing her, and now she'd gone and ruined her get out of jail free card over some drugs that she really could've gone without.

* * *

"It's the final song!" Mavis's voice finally came in over the intercom, "Unfortunately as I'm sure all of you know we have to close down this establishment due to new zoning codes, but we invite you guys to celebrate with us. Everyone gets a drink on the house! I hope you guys have enjoyed your night with us. Be sure to give your favorite ladies one last big farewell tip!"

"Drinks on the house?!" Mira chided Mavis who was standing next to her, "Can we afford that?"

"I can absorb the cost" Mavis waved Mira off, "Besides, I can't take all of this with me when we close the store. What use do I have for it? And if we get the patrons a little more drunk they're likely to give the girls bigger tips for their last night. It think it'll work out nicely. After this song tell all the girls not to go home but wait here. I'm going to introduce them to they're new employers."

Mira blushed a little as she asked, "You mean… Erik's band?"

"Well, Erik is your boss, technically, but yes. You'll be working with the band. Tell the girls to have fun drinking the rest of the liquor as well after the patrons leave. You guys should celebrate too."

Mira looked up at the shelf behind her and covered her face with her hand. There was practically a full bar since they'd just received a restocking shipment that Friday afternoon. All Mira knew was that she was not a designated driver. She didn't have a car, and she didn't want to drive anyway. As Mira looked around the club she saw all her friends actually seem a good bit more cheerful than usual. It was the last time they'd have to dance on those poles. The last time they'd have to make men oogle over their bodies for money. The last time they'd have to feel like their entire revenue, self worth, and money making ability is in their boobs and ass.

"679" by Fetty Wap was playing through the speakers as all the girls twirled and wove around the poles like their lives depended on didn't take too long for Mira to snap out of her daze as patrons were mobbing the bar with requests. Levy and Mira had a hard time keeping up. Cana had to get off the floor and step behind the bar to help them out. Of course she was a crowd pleaser as usually as she let the men take body shots off of her while downing half a bottle herself. Mira just sweat dropped at her. Honestly she felt Cana should just look for a bartending job somewhere else. It was an unnatural aptitude she had for crowd pleasing and booze pouring.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Read on! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer** **:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

After the last person has shuffled out of the club, Cana didn't waste any time in turning the overhead lights on to brighten up the dingy place then hopped up onto the bar, "Free booze for the working ladies!" She cheered.

It didn't take but three seconds until all the girls were pining over each other for their favorite mixed drinks. Unfortunately only Levy, Cana, and Mira knew how to make the drinks, so they didn't get to enjoy the booze until after all the girls had at least one concoction in their hands. The guys were watching from a booth in the back. They were surprised that the girls didn't seem to notice they were even there in the middle of their partying like wild animals. It took Natsu all his self restraint to keep Lucy from downing her alcohol. It was already bad enough that she was on a drug to suppress her withdrawals temporarily. It would be even worse if she were shit faced and convulsing in a withdrawal at the same time. Sting and Rouge were almost passed out from all the drinking they'd already done. As usual Gray was a prude and had only had three drinks for the five hours he'd been there so he was almost as sober as a rock. Gajeel and Laxus were a little more tipsy than they'd like to admit, but that's what happens when they spend the whole night sitting at the bar instead of walking around. Natsu realized that he'd only had one drink since he walked in because he was mostly keeping a watch over Lucy. He didn't feel like getting wasted and losing focus.

"Hey" Yukino slurred next to Lucy, "Who are those guys. Shouldn't they have left by now?"

Lucy sheepishly grinned before she answered, "They're our new employers, I guess."

"We're working for those hunks?" Yukino almost had to close her mouth with her hand.

"Hunks?" Lucy laughed, "They're good looking, but I don't know if you really think that or if the alcohol's already hitting you pretty heavy."

"You're one to talk" she slurred, "You're having to lean on that platform like a crutch right now."

Lucy just scowled and stuck her tongue out before turning her attention back to the bar where Mavis was standing next to Cana before she finally belted out, "Ladies! I know you guys have had a hectic night, and I'm sorry that I'll no longer be able to employ you here, but I'm glad that so many of you have come through here and stayed with me for the long haul. I promised I'd do whatever I could to keep you from hanging out to dry, and luckily I got something for you."

All the girls grabbed hands, excited. Juvia was standing next to Erza, while Cana hopped down off the bar to stand next to Levy and Mirajane. Lucy and Yukino were hugging each other with Kagura off to the side by herself. The girls were antsy to say the least. It seemed that they were the only ones left from the club who hadn't found another job.

"Your employers are right there!" Mavis pointed at the men sitting at the booth watching them from a distance.

"Oi oi oi!" Laxus growled as he stood up, "We're not the employer. We work for the same employer. He's the dude you need to be pointing at." Laxus ground out while pointing over at Erik who was sitting at a separate booth with Kinana.

"Oh" Erik suddenly said as he realized all the attention was now on him. "Well I guess this means I have to say something."

Laxus sat back down begrudgingly in the booth with the other band members as he waited for Erik to say something stupid as usual.

"Well ladies. I'm sure a few of you know me by now since I bring a lot of my record clients here, and fortunately we have a tour coming up that we need help with. These boys also seem to need a little help here and there and we can always use extra hands in the studio. Mavis came to us and asked for jobs and since I feel like I know each and every one of you fairly well and by name I don't see why not. You all are hard workers, anyone can see that, so I look forward to working with you come Monday morning."

All the girls were listening while smiles were all slowly growing on their faces. It was contagious and they couldn't help but cheer once Erik had finished his speech, although the majority of them would admit they were mostly just screaming from the alcohol in their system. The guys were not terribly concerned with the afterparty and slowly shuffled out with Erik. Natsu however had voted to stay behind, despite his better judgement. He couldn't leave Lucy here to her own devices, and he doubted she'd be able to get home in her current condition.

"Come join us!" Levy slurred as she slid in the booth across from Natsu.

"I'm good" he sighed as he watched from a distance.

He'd been standoff-ish in the corner just keeping a silent watch over everything. Normally he'd love to join in the chaos, but unfortunately he knew that he had to be the responsible one tonight since Lucy had just about lost her mind.

"Why be a party pooper?" Levy cooed, "If you're going to be here you might as well enjoy it!"

Natsu grinned at her before chuckling, "Believe me you guys are fun to watch from here."

He had to stifle a laugh as he was watching Yukino and Lucy trying to teach Mira to dance on the pole. They were trying to teach her a hard technique where Mira was supposed to be upside down but the silver haired girl just wound up landing on her head instead. Tequila was not the best teacher for pole dancing.

* * *

"Natsu, please stay!~" Lucy whined as Natsu finally looked at the time and it was nearly 7am.

They'd stayed for a ridiculously long time and he was absolutely exhausted. The only reason he hadn't dragged Lucy out by force after Erik and Mavis's announcement is because he had tomorrow off, but at this rate he'd end up sleeping all day to make up for Lucy's party animal impulses.

"No, I think it's best if Natsu takes Lucy home. She's starting to look a little worse for ware" Mira tried to smile as she was chugging a glass of water to sober up before leaving herself.

"Yea guys it's officially morning. Pretty soon we're gunna be seeing all these people walking down the street and I doubt taking shots during morning commuters walk past this place is gunna look normal, or good in any way." Kagura yawned

"Where did Mavis go anyway?" Erza finally asked as she realized that she hadn't joined them for their after party.

"She's arranging one last surprise for us, but I don't think she'll have it ready until tomorrow afternoon, well, this afternoon I guess" Mira smiled knowingly without spoiling it for the rest of them.

* * *

"Piggy back!" Lucy screeched as she hung on Natsu's arm while walking towards home.

Natsu was already at his boiling point since he realized that Lucy hadn't brought a jacket with her for their trip home, so he had to give her his in order to cover her ungodly amount of skin exposure. Just like Kagura had said, the morning commuters were already in full swing shuffling to their jobs. Natsu had a hard time balancing the blond on his back while weaving in and out of the crowds of people walking down the side walk. It was the only thing he didn't like about living in a city.

"Natsuuuuu" Lucy whined against Natsu's shoulders as her arms hung limp next to his neck.

"What?" he grunted while twitching his eyebrow.

"I have to pee…"

"Hold it till we get home!" he shouted at her trying to pick up his walking pace.

He figured it would be about another ten minutes until they got home. The only thing that would make this night worse is if she peed on his back.

"I can't!" She cried out before purring into his neck.

"Damnit" Natsu hissed before he jogged across the street to a corner convince store and set Lucy down by the women's bathroom.

After she walked through the swinging door Natsu shuffled around the store and got a sports drink and a small packet of aspirin. He knew that she'd probably need it to get through the rest of the morning and afternoon. Once he paid the cashier he walked back over to the bathroom door and waited for a few minutes for Lucy to come back out. He glanced at the time on his phone's lock screen and wondered why she was taking her sweet time in there. She said she had to pee, not take dump. However when she emerged five minutes later she turned to Natsu and groaned.

"I threw up…" she stated blankly before collapsing against Natsu.

"Here" he held out the sports drink then ripped the packet of aspirin open and put the two pills in her hand, "These should help."

"Thanks" she yawned before putting the pills in her mouth and downing half of the bottle.

"Alright, we're almost home, think you can make it?" He asked her before crouching down in front of her again so she could crawl up onto his back.

"Un" she nodded before falling down on his back again.

She felt warm against his back, as he walked the rest of the way home. It wasn't five more minutes until she heard the door open and felt the bounce of Natsu carrying her up the stairs. She wasn't sure how she felt about him dumping her onto his bed. After he walked out of the room he returned a few minutes later in sweat pants and a t-shirt with his hair wet from a shower.

"The bathroom's open if you want to clean up" he told her as he towel dried his hair, "You smell like a clubber puked into a martini."

"Ugh" she groaned, "I feel too sick to even move."

"I told you not to drink so much…"

"Unnnngggghhhh"

Natsu wiped a frustrated hand over his face before he asked her, "If I carry you to the bathroom do you think you could crawl under the shower and turn it on? I think you'll feel better with fresh clothes on and all that sweat washed off of you."

Lucy nodded before Natsu shuffled through her bag finding nothing for pajamas. He then decided to grab a pair of his flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt before hoisting Lucy over his shoulder to go take a shower. After setting her down inside he turned around and set the clean clothes on top of the closed toilet seat.

"Just put your dirty clothes in my hand and I'll take them back to the room and wait for you there" he told her while holding a hand out behind his back, facing away from her.

Lucy took off what little clothes she had on from the club and put them in Natsu's hand, trusting him not to turn around and look at her before she waddled into the shower. After she watched Natsu turn the lock on the knob of the door and close it behind him she turned the water on. She was glad that she'd listened to Natsu's advice to take a shower. It really did feel relaxing. Her muscles were starting to cramp in pain from her body's agitation. Sobering up and being in withdrawal at the same time felt like a bitch. After turning the water off she opened the linen closet by the door for a towel and quickly dried herself off before slipping into the clean clothes Natsu left for her on the counter. After walking out of the bathroom she scaled along the wall of the hallway back to his room so that she wouldn't fall over. After opening his bedroom door through she couldn't find anything to grab onto for support. Natsu's attention was now in her direction as he looked up from his laptop he had resting in his lap while sitting up on the bed. He closed the lip quickly so that Lucy wouldn't see what he was reading. He helped her and walked her over to his bed, however he noticed how she seemed to tense up as he picked her up and put her down onto it.

"I promise it's fine" he told her, "I'll stay on my side. It's a pretty big bed."

Lucy nodded before Natsu added, "If you tell me now, I'll sleep on the couch if that's more comfortable for you…"

"No…" she whispered, "I don't want to be alone right now…"

Natsu looked at her face as he saw it twist in pain. It took him only a few seconds to realize that she was about to hurl again. He shuffled for an empty shoe box under his bed and held it out to her as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the cardboard. After watching her convulse and dry heave for five minutes he assumed that she had nothing left to empty, and retracted the box, closing the lid. He decided it'd be best to go ahead and take the box out to the trash can before the acidic smell started to spread throughout his room. He told Lucy to wait right where she was while he quickly skipped down the stairs and into the garage to throw the box away. When he walked back inside he saw Laxus sitting on the sofa watching TV. Either he was an early riser or he didn't sleep a lick since he got home.

"Is she ok?" Laxus asked.

It was a little uncharacteristic of Laxus to inquire about someone else's well being, but Natsu just looked at him and scratched his head before answering, "Well if she hadn't drunk so much alcohol she'd probably be better, but she's a little bent out a shape right now."

"Does she have something to drink?" He asked turning his head to look Natsu in the eyes.

"Yea I got her a drink at the convenience store on the way home since she had to use the restroom. I also gave her some aspirin. She's puking a lot though."

Laxus raised a brow then said, "Is she throwing up the alcohol from drinking too much, or do you think it's the withdrawals?"

"Probably both" Natsu sighed as he turned to head back upstairs until Laxus said one last thing that he stopped to listen to half way up the stairs.

"If she gets worse you might need to take her to the hospital. You remember when Gajeel over dosed and drank a lot of alcohol don't you?"

"Let's hope it's not that bad" Natsu ran a frustrated hand through his pink hair before making his way back to his bedroom as swiftly as he could.

When he opened the door he saw that Lucy was curled up in the fetal position shaking. It was obvious that the withdrawals were starting to hit her a lot harder than earlier. Natsu crawled onto the bed and sat up behind her with his laptop in his lap googling "what do to for someone who is in withdrawal" and got a lot of varied home remedies, but the majority of them just said to keep the person hydrated if they were vomiting. They also said to take the person to a hospital if they continued convulsing for an excessive amount of time. Natsu didn't consider the past fifteen minutes excessive yet, so he just sat there with one hand on his keyboard and the other on Lucy's back. However he was a little worried when her convulsing suddenly stopped about a half hour later. He ran a hand up to her face and she was burning up as well. However he still could feel her pulse and her breathing was surprisingly even. Natsu decided while he had a minute he'd walk downstairs and grab a small bowl of ice water and grab a washcloth. When he came back he put it over her forehead and sat up against his headboard watching her.

A few minutes later Sting popped his head inside of Natsu's door without knocking before asking, "Everything ok?"

Natsu looked up a little startled from being half asleep as he answered, "Yea. I'm just making sure Lucy's ok."

"Oh" Sting said a little surprised before looking at the blond who was curled up into a lump beside Natsu, "So that's why you've been shuffling in and out of your room all morning?"

"Yea" he answered while pinching the skin on the bridge of his nose to delay a headache that was starting to set in.

He looked over at the clock on his night stand and it read 11:00AM. Of course everyone would be awake by now. He hadn't fallen asleep yet since he was busy staying up and taking care of the train wreck next to him. After Sting saw Natsu's mild annoyance he decided not to ask anymore questions and closed his bedroom door before walking downstairs.

"Oi, what's Salamander doing?" Gajeel asked Sting as he jumped the last four steps to the bottom of the stairs.

Sting turned to face the metal head who was sitting on the couch watching TV as he said, "He's been up taking care of Lucy. I'm guessing he hasn't slept yet. He looks really angry."

"I would be mad too if I was taking care of a stranger who drugged themselves and got wasted to the point where they were physically ill."

"Gajeel didn't you do that the Laxus though?" Rouge asked a little mischievously.

Gajeel scowled at the cheeky kid before he said, "That's different. I was young and stupid, like you two."

Sting just smirked while Rouge had the same smug look on his face. The two always knew what buttons to press to get Gajeel angry. However the metal head had become better at controlling his reactions to snippy comebacks or mild shouting. If he let them get to big of a rise out of him they would just bother him more often. Although Gajeel had to admit that he did put Laxus through the ringer back when he was struggling with Drug abuse. He was in another band called Phantom Lord, and they were all heavy herion users. Eventually one of the band members died and another got busted for drug possession so they had to disband. Gajeel was lucky enough to get picked up by Laxus and their band, however it didn't take long for his drug issues to come to light. Instead of kicking him out though, Laxus surprisingly tried to get him through it. He made a conscious effort to keep Gajeel away from anyone who he used to do drugs with, he kept anything amusable out of reach for Gajeel. Laxus even got to where he would tie Gajeel up and throw him in the tub until he was done vomitting in withdrawal and passed out. The part that made him get tied up though is because he'd do anything to get his hands on some drugs to take away his withdrawal and Laxus had a hard time wrestling with him while getting puked on, so it was easier to hog tie him and put him where he could throw up everywhere to clean it later.

"You look like you're thinking really hard" Laxus grunted at Gajeel with mild concern at seeing his facial expression, "Something bothering you?"

"Just a little nostalgia. It's been a while since we've had someone in withdrawal around us."

"Yea. I was hoping to keep it that way, but Natsu wears his heart on his sleeve and made this his problem without realizing it's not just his personal dilemma but a hinderance to all of us."

"Don't be too hard on him. He's trying to do something good. Besides, you didn't call _me_ a hinderance…"

"Because you weren't one. We needed you. Lucy has nothing to offer us other than being an assistant for us. I think Natsu would be better off putting in a temporary rehab place to keep her clean fora week then dealing with her, but he seems dead set on being her savior."

"You were dead set on helping me. Maybe this is his way of emulating you. He was a lot younger, still in high school, but he saw what you did for me. That probably affected him a lot."

Laxus blushed at the thought of Natsu copying him and possibly looking up to him as a role model. He didn't really find himself worth emulating, but aparently without realizing it he had an elder brother effect on Gray and Natsu. Just the same without realizing it, Natsu and Gray were having an effect on Sting and Rouge. Laxus was right around 28 years old, making him the "old fart" of the band as they all liked to call him. Gajeel came in at a comfortable second at 25. Natsu and Gray were both 22, leaving Sting and Rouge at 19. Laxus wasn't a fan of the fact that Erik let them both drink underage at the club, but being a VIP I guess that means no one bothers to check your ID or read your celebrity Wikipedia page for your age. Erik was well aware of it, but he didn't seem to care, at least that's the way it looked.

It was a weird family they'd developed, but Laxus took a minute to appreciate the fact that Rouge and Sting were sitting there on the couch watching episodes of Game of Thrones they'd missed with Gajeel. Gray was sitting in the kitchen reading a magazine and Natsu was upstairs tending to his new "friend." It was weird how even though they were supposed to be up coming rock stars, they still managed to have a normal Sunday morning in their house. Everyone was dressed in sweat pants with t-shirts and it was easy to tell the atmosphere was completely relaxed.

Laxus almost felt weird when he realized he was the oldest person in the band. He was probably the one that they considered the leader besides Natsu. Whenever they had a question about management, gigs, or anything else like that, Laxus was usually the one they bothered since he took care of it. Natsu was only considered the musical lead of the band. Not only because he was the vocalist and people usually considered the vocalist the face of the band, but he really did write all the music. Sure he didn't play all their instruments and other than some basic guitar he really didn't play anything else, but he managed to convey it to them in unorthodox ways through tabs or diagrams or pictures to show what sound he was going for. However when it came to management he was a mess. He had no idea how to book a gig, follow up with a venue, or even how to talk to managers. Luckily since Erik had signed them onto his label, the tedious work of venues, concerts, and travel would be handled by him and the company. The only thing they really had to worry about was the music.

"Hey" Gray said from the kitchen doorway grabbing everyone's attention, "You hear that upstairs?"

Gajeel paused the TV and suddenly they could hear a few thuds coming from upstairs followed by what seemed like Natsu's yelling. Everyone already knew about Natsu's nigh terrors and they were all worried that maybe he'd snapped or something. All of them dashed up the stairs. Laxus was the first one to bust Natsu's door open. Fortunately it was unlocked. However the sight before them wasn't what they expected. Natsu's face had a small trickle of blood running from his forehead down his cheek over his eye. He was kneeling on the floor trying to restrain a frantic Lucy against his chest while she continued to slap his arms beat on his back.

"Lucy calm down!" he yelled, "It'll stop just hang in there!"

Lucy however was far from calm she was practically screeching while she cycled from trying to beat the shit out of Natsu to contributing all of her efforts to getting away from him. When Natsu noticed everyone standing in his room he turned around with slightly wide eyes. It was obvious that they weren't being very quiet, but he didn't expect a full party to show up.

"I don't know what to do!" He finally shouted at them while he continued to take a beating from the blond, "She was asleep and then she just started screaming. When I tried to hold her she started beating on me and even hit me with a fucking lamp because 'it won't stop' and I won't let her go to get more!"

They noted the lamp on the floor by the side of the bed. The hilt no doubt had Natsu's blood on it. Laxus didn't waste any time pulling the harpy off of Natsu with his brute strength. Natsu was strong but Laxus was a hulk. Laxus wasn't as gentle as Natsu though. He had her kneeled on the floor in front of him restraining bother her arms behind her back at an angle that kept her from hitting or scratching anybody. Laxus kneeled with on leg over the top of her two tiny ones just to make sure she didn't start kicking anybody.

"Get some zip ties out of the garage!" Laxus barked at Sting who was the closest to the door.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Sting raced out of the room down to the garage like Laxus had told him and shuffled through the work bench before grabbing a handful of white zip ties. When he came back upstairs he saw that even Gray was helping Laxus to restrain Lucy. After Gajeel took Laxus's place holding down the blond, Laxus took the zip ties and put two at different angles to cuff her arms behind her back. He also put two around her ankles.

"Aren't you going to zip tie her wrists and ankles together?" Gajeel asked referring to Laxus's treatment of him in the same situation.

"I don't think she'll pose as big a threat as you did" he grunted at him, "But if she does there's two more we can use for that. I'd rather not hurt her."

"Speaking of being hurt…" Gray grunted looking over to where Natsu was sitting on the floor cradling his head in his hands with blood trickling all over his arm and face.

Sting and Rouge walked over and kneeled next to him trying to brush his hands away before Rouge finally got a good glimpse of it, "Yup, stitches."

"Like hell I need stitches" Natsu groaned, "I'm fine."

"No you're not. Get in the car. We're taking the banshee too. she probably needs medical attention too if she's having violent outbursts with her withdrawals." Laxus's voice was laced with finality.

Gray and Gajeel were trying to find a way to pick up the blond without having her try to physically injure them. Sting helped Natsu stand up and draped Natsu's arm that wasn't covering his bloodied face across his shoulders. After walking down the stairs Rouge was already on the phone with a taxi service. A cab finally rolled up about two minutes later and Gajeel and Gray tried to heft Lucy inside the car while she was hysterical. Laxus got in the back seat with her to keep her from hitting the driver while Sting set Natsu down into the passenger seat up front. Gray got in on the other side of the back seat, pushing Lucy in the middle so that he could help Laxus keep her still.

"We'll walk" Gajeel grunted before looking over his shoulder at Sting and Rouge.

The dragon slayers were not particularly fond of motor vehicles, however it would be impossible to walk to the hospital with Lucy and at least two people had to go with her. It wasn't that she was physically strong, but she was crafty. The blond had tried to bite Gray and Gajeel while they were attempting to pick her up to take her downstiars. As the cab drove away Gajeel and the twins followed them down the street towards the hospital at a fast pace.

* * *

When the taxi finally pulled up to the emergency entrance of the hospital, Laxus managed to pull Lucy out of the car. She was still fairly feisty, but she'd lost a lot of steam struggling the whole way there. Gray walked around to the passenger side to help a disoriented Natsu out of the car. Laxus promptly gave the cab driver a $50 to cover both the ride and his tip for getting them there quickly and safely especially with all he ruckus and blood. While the four of them were walking into the hospital Laxus couldn't help but notice a few paparazzi members gathered off to the side. It was beyond him why they would possibly be of interest before the release of even their first album. Quietly he slipped passed them and shot a text to Erik to make sure they were outside waiting for someone else and not the band. Unfortunately Erik texted him back that he was on his way to hospital to deal with it because apparently it did have to do with them. Laxus was glad they managed to slip into the check in unnoticed. Thankfully because of their current situation with the paparazzi, a nurse managed to get them immediately into a room, though all four of them had to be in there. Laxus was a little irritated at this point with the blond still struggling against the zip ties on her wrist and ankles. The nurse had insisted they come off, but Laxus was adamant that they stay on unless they had a stretcher with straps to restrain her. It only took another ten minutes before the nurse brought a separate stretcher in with the straps to place Lucy in. Gray carefully took the pocket knife out of his cargo pants and cut the zip ties while Laxus held her down so the nurse could tighten the straps with Lucy's hands at her sides.

"The doctor should be in shortly" she said as she bowed and left the room.

This honestly is not how Laxus wanted to spend his Sunday afternoon. He had expected Lucy to end up here regardless, but to have Natsu here too with rather serious injuries was a little more than upsetting. Laxus looked over to the blond who was strapped down in the bed. It seemed she'd given up struggling at this point. The nurses took the liberty of giving her a mild sedative to make her less obstinate while she was laying in the bed. Natsu was sitting up in the other bed with no restraints as he held an ice pack a nurse gave him against the back of his neck to help with his headache. He didn't want to spend his Sunday this way either, however he did acknowledge that he said he'd take responsibility for Lucy and her actions when he let her step into the house and enter his room.

It wasn't more than an hour before the rest of the group walked into the hospital room. Gajeel was silent was he took a seat in a chair by Laxus in the room while the twins stood by Lucy's bedside and stared at her. It seemed that only 24 hours ago she was completely normal and sitting in Natsu's room like a civil human being, and now she was strapped down to a hospital bed out of her mind. Gajeel didn't need to look at the bond to be reminded of what drugs did to people, but he figured it would be a good life lessons for the twins to take a good look at her. After a few moments they came over and sat down on the floor by Gajeel since there were no more chairs in the room.

"Finally" Laxus grumbled about an hour later when a doctor in a white lab coat entered the room.

"Hi" the doctor greeted, "I've been well informed by the nurses of your current issues and I'm sorry for the wait. Weekends at the emergency room here are a little hectic. I'm glad to say that hopefully we can resolve this before the day is over. We need to have Natsu take a CAT scan though to make sure there's no concussion or inflammation to brain tissue from the head trauma. Lucy however… we might need to do a little more for her."

"What do you mean by that?" Natsu was the first to speak up while holding his head.

The doctor sighed before she answered, "Unfortunately we've seen cases like hers and rehabilitation is very hard. There's a few things we can do for her, but I suppose it's up to you guys since she is not in her right mind and she has no next of kin listed on her patient information here. We can either keep her here for a few days and try to detox her body of the drug that's built up in her system causing these violent withdrawals, or we can give her a prescription for suboxone and send her home to see how she fares on that. It says here the drug abused is related to morphine right?"

Natsu nodded before he added on to the doctor's statement, "A drug dealer gave her the suboxone instead of the drug she was using. It seemed to offset her symptoms for several hours, so I think it could work."

The doctor smiled and said reassuringly, "Well while I hate to hear that a prescription is being passed around by a drug dealer, it does make me happy to hear that that form of therapy was effective. I guess I can give her a referral to specialist who will continue to oversee her recovery. I'll give her a one month supply to get her by until then."

After a few more minutes a nurse came and dragged Natsu to the imaging part of the hospital to get a scan of his brain to make sure there really was no immediate danger to him. Laxus was told to keep him awake in the meantime, which was extraordinarily hard considering Natsu had been awake for the past 30 hours strait. However after the doctor came in and told them there was no need to worry about a concussion. The doctor stitched Natsu up and made sure that his wound had stopped bleeding before discharging both of them. It was about 8pm that evening by the time they all left the hospital. Even though they were "VIPs" it was hard to get in and out of an emergency room anywhere.

"I hope you think this was worth it" Laxus groaned to Natsu as he was walking home.

Natsu's arm was slung over Gajeel's shoulder. Sting was trying to support Lucy the same way with her arm around his shoulders while holding onto her hip not he opposite side while she walked. Before they left the hospital, Lucy had taken the prescription and the drug had set into her system making her in her right mind again and not in pain anymore. She felt embarrassed and even mortified when she realized what she'd done to Natsu. She was completely quiet since she saw the gash in his forehead that needed stitches.

"It's ok" Natsu finally told Lucy while looking over his shoulder at her, "I've had much worse. I doubt this will even leave a scar."

Lucy didn't even bother to answer and looked down at the pavement. She was disappointed in herself. Knowingly taking the morphine from Jenny was a bad idea, but she did it anyway. Now it had landed both her and Natsu in the hospital for the better part of a day. When they got back to the house though, Lucy couldn't have been happier to trudge upstairs and collapse in Natsu's bed. She didn't even care that he collapsed next to her on his own side. It didn't take her long to fall asleep, and it didn't take Natsu more than 3 seconds.

* * *

"Lu-chan!" Lucy heard someone call her name when she walked outside of the house to start walking down the street towards Wakkaba's pizza place the next afternoon.

She had been informed by Erik that her pay for the job she'd be doing at the record company would be plenty of money. More than her previous two jobs combined. She didn't feel the need to work herself ragged at two jobs if she wasn't even having to pay for her apartment anymore. Of course she didn't like being a freeloader and fully intended to help pay bills and groceries and various expenses around to house to pitch in in exchange for her staying there.

Lucy turned her head to see Levy standing in the front yard of the house next door watering some of the plants on the porch. "Levy!" She said surprised as she walked towards the bluenette. "What are you doing here?"

"Mavis didn't tell you?" Levy asked with a smile on her face, "This house is ours now! Erza, Mirajane, Kinana, Kagura, Cana, Juvia, Yukino, and myself all live here. It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but if we go two people to a room it works out."

"No way!" Lucy squealed, "Wait… so that means all four rooms are taken…"

"I mean, if you wanted to I'm sure we could fit you into Juvia and Yukino's room, but somehow I don't think you'd like that…" Levu sighed slightly before getting a mischievous look on her face, "Besides, I hear you're living it up with _Natsu_ in there."

"That's not what it's like!" Lucy's face turned red as she started her denial, "He's just been really good to me!"

"I'm sure he has" Levy cooed before smirking to herself, "Thats besides the point though. I heard you had a rough night last night…"

Lucy lowered her head in shame a bit before she responded, "Yea. Not one of my best moments…"

"But I heard Natsu took care of you" Levy smiled before she jogged down the front porch steps to meet Lucy in the sidewalk.

Levy put a hand on Lucy's shoulders before enveloping the girl into a tight hug as she said, "I know it's hard, but you have so many people behind you. Please just promise me you'll always come to us for help."

Lucy nodded as she returned the hug. Gajeel was watching Lucy from the window inside their house. The boys all didn't know yet that the girls had moved into the house next door for the sake of "convenience" for being their assistants. At least they weren't all moving inside the house like Lucy did. That would be an incredibly tight fit. However Gajeel was concerned that Lucy was headed off on her own. Obviously the bupremorphine had kicked in and Lucy was in her right mind again, but Gajeel knew better than anyone that rationality didn't always win out when faced with certain situations. He was tempted to wake the pink haired mess upstairs, but he figured that being away for nearly 32 hours strait was a huge toll on him. He deserved to sleep in for a little while. After Erik had gotten to the hospital last night to help break up the paparazzi outside before they left, he told them to take Monday off as well. He said it'd be a good way to get to know the girls as well.

"Can we trust her?" Gajeel asked out loud as he felt Laxus's presence behind him.

The blond shrugged before he said, "We don't have much of a choice, but if she isn't back in about an hour we can go drag her back. She said she was just going to resign from her delivery job and come home, although it seems she's distracted now."

"At least she's distracted where we can see her, and by someone we know won't ruin her progress." Gajeel shrugged.

Laxus just huffed before he walked over to the couch to sit down and turn the TV on to watch his favorite news station. Sting and Rouge were still in the kitchen cooking breakfast, probably making a mess. Gajeel had a keen nose and he could smell it from the window. It was bacon, french toast, and lots of scrambled eggs. Between the six of the boys they could eat an entire food truck. Erik found it rather disturbing how Natsu could eat enough by himself for ten people in one sitting. Gajeel walked away from the window to sit down on the sofa next to Laxus. He wasn't a fan of the news, but he didn't mind watching it as much as Sting and Rouge did. It didn't hurt to be relevant every once and a while.

" _And in other news today we encountered an up and coming band who hasn't released their first album yet. It seems they might've gotten in some trouble as their lead singer was seen coming into the hospital with his face covered in blood with a girl who was held by another member with… zip ties? It was a rather astonishing sight for onlookers who assumed that the woman must have brutally assaulted him and was being brought in for arrest. We aren't sure what's happened since the record label's representative showed up with other band members later on to escort journalists off the hospital's property in order to have privacy for his clients. Erik, the representative mentioned, said he would release a statement later with details on the situation._ "

"Are you fucking serious?" Natsu growled from the stairwell.

He'd stopped halfway down the stairs when the TV had caught his attention as he saw a video of himself being helped into the hospital by Gray with Laxus battling a struggling Lucy inside as well. It was definitely not something that did the situation justice, though he could imagine why they would draw those conclusions. Yes, Lucy had assaulted him, but if she'd known what she was doing and wasn't in withdrawals then she never in a million years would have done something like that.

"What the hell" Gajeel grumbled, "I thought you said that you guys slipped in unnoticed?"

Laxus wiped a hand over his face as he explained, "Most of the people I looked at looked like they weren't paying attention. There must've been someone filming discretely that I didn't notice. Bastards."

"Well as long as Erik doesn't release Lucy's name in his statement I don't give a shit what the press says." Natsu plopped down on an arm chair next to the TV while holding his head still.

"Advil's in the kitchen if you're still feeling beat up" Laxus told him, "And I wouldn't hold your breath on Erik not releasing her name. She's put herself in a bad position and put Erik in a complicated one. The record label's grinding his ass right now for this whole thing. We aren't even supposed to be news worthy yet since we only have a few songs released without an entire album. The only redeeming thing about this though is it seems in a week our two songs we recorded have reached 4th and 10th place on the billboard music charts. Erik didn't tell us."

"How are we supposed to know that?" Sting asked angrily from the kitchen.

"We don't listen to the fucking radio" Rouge chimed in.

"Well then which one is it?" Gajeel asked.

Laxus ran a frustrated hand over his face as he muted the TV then used the same remote and pointed it over his shoulder at the stereo on the wall and turned it on.

 _"_ _This is radio 103.4, Magnolia's alternate music station"_ a lusty female voice cooed over the speakers, _"Let's hear from one of our new bands to rise up the charts Dragons and Men with their song Fashionably Late."_

With their mouths open suddenly Natsu's voice blared through the speakers as he shouted the chorus with Gray's pulsing drums and Laxus's guitar riff. All the boys were rather shocked for a minute to hear themselves over an actual radio. Of course without missing a queue, Rouge and Sting started trying to mockingly emulate Natsu's voice as they sang along. The pinkette couldn't help but laugh at them and then mock them back by jokingly singing the "nananana" part that they would normally do. Gajeel smirked at the three boys before Natsu finally hopped off the sofa and looked around the room.

"Where's Lucy?" he finally asked as he realized that the blond wasn't in his room when he woke up and she wasn't in the living room either.

"She went out" Laxus answered him, "Something about resigning from her job at the pizza place."

"Oh" he answered then he suddenly cocked his head towards them with a critical look, "And you let her go alone? Don't tell me ice tits went with her" Natsu growled as he looked around the room without spotting Gray either.

"No. She went alone." Gajeel chimed in, "I looked out the window a while ago and she was talking to Levy, so she probably is over there at the house next door."

Natsu shrugged before he grumbled, "We have to at least give her one chance to redeem herself. Now that she's back on that stuff I think she'll be fine."

He walked the rest of the way into the kitchen to see Rouge and Sting cooking breakfast food and his stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since the club over 24 hours ago and he was famished. He felt like the walking dead with his stomach being empty. Despite the twins' cries of protest he grabbed a plate and started piling stuff onto it before scarfing it down without a second thought. He had eaten half of it before he managed to get to the fridge to dump syrup on the rest of it.

"Good god" Rouge growled, "What are you? A bottomless pit?"

"The pit has a bottom" Natsu smiled sheepishly, "It's just a mile deep."

Sting and Rouge just sweat dropped at the Natsu as he ate the rest of his food. None of the boys were slackers when it came to eating, but Natsu's appetite was ungodly compared to the rest of them. After finishing his food though, Rouge was thankful that Natsu rinsed his plate and silverware and put it in the dishwasher instead of leaving it in the sink. The broody teen got mad that when he tried to clean up the week old mess of dishes in the sink and a cockroach had tried to slither up his arm making him scream this morning as he tried to spray the whole sink with "Raid" spray to get rid of any other creepy crawlies that made their home there.

"This is good. You guys are awesome. Minerva did a good job teaching you guys to cook. You should do it more often." Natsu complimented them while trying to chew the last of the food in his mouth.

"Are you sure you actually chewed it enough to enjoy it?" Sting asked with his brow twitching a little.

Natsu rubbed his stomach before gleefully saying, "Maybe I didn't chew everything but I still tasted it."

The two boys just slapped their hands over their faces as Natsu walked out of the kitchen with a slight waddle while he cradled his food baby and plopped back down on arm chair in the living room. It was the first time he really had a day off for a while. Sunday didn't count after all the incidents that had happened, and since he was ahead in the song writing Erik encouraged him to just take a breather and enjoy some down time. Before Natsu had even realized it he dozed off.

* * *

"Lucy look what Mavis had done to the living room!" Levy cooed to her blond friend as she walked her inside the house after returning from the pizza parlor.

It was actually a little larger than Natsu's. Lucy had taken Levy with her to resign from Wakaba's and then Levy had insisted that Lucy check out the girls' house next door. Lucy was surprised at the bright bamboo flooring that looked as slick as oil with the shine. Lucy was ecstatic to see the large five person sofa with love seats on both sides of it facing towards the TV that was possibly just a large if not bigger than the one at Natsu's house. The kitchen was impressive too with an island that had some bar stools for people to sit at. There was a small four person table off to the side for them to eat at.

Then Levy clapped her hands in excitement as she squeaked, "You haven't even seen the basement yet!"

Lucy was a little worried about basements. They hardly ever looked nice, but she was happy when she saw from the top of the stairs that the basement looked completed like a room. The floors were the same slick and shiny bamboo as upstairs. Lucy wanted to laugh when she saw the three dancing poles and a wall that was covered in a large mirror. It was obviously a personal touch of Mavis to put this downstairs.

"Well I guess she knew we had fun dancing on the poles, just not for other people" Lucy laughed a little as she walked up to one of the poles and playfully swung on it like a kid.

"Try it out!" Levy cheered as she picked a remote up off a nearby shelf and clicked a few buttons to activate the large speakers all around the room.

Hands to Myself by Selena Gomez started bumping through the speakers as Lucy laughed a little before warming up with a few basic tricks on the pole.

* * *

Natsu jolted awake when he realized that the TV wasn't playing the news anymore. Sting and Rouge had committed mutiny against Laxus and commandeered the remote from him. They were watching something on HBO that Natsu didn't care anything about. He was about to get up when he saw the time on the clock of the cable box. He'd fallen asleep for over an hour, and from the looks of it Lucy wasn't back yet. He took out his cell phone and tried to text her, but after ten minutes with no answer he got antsy. He didn't know anyone else's cell number that could be around her. That's when he remembered that Gajeel had told him the other girls had moved in next door. Natsu was sure they wouldn't mind him popping in to check on Lucy. He walked up the front steps and was about to knock on the door when he realized the door was cracked open. When he turned the knob it was unlocked and he let himself in.

When he walked into the living room he let out a low whistle. Mavis sure went all out for her girls, and this parting gift of a house was surely no exception. He popped his head into the kitchen and saw no one and was tempted to walk up the stairs and knock on bedroom doors until something caught his attention. There was a booming vibration coming from below his feet. This sparked his curiosity and he was sure where there was loud music there were people as well. He walked down the hall from the kitchen and found the door that led to the basement. After opening it he was sure that that's where the music was coming from and quietly tried to creep down the stairs so he could try and see what was happening without bringing attention to him. At first he blushed at the sight of Lucy on the pole, but then he smiled a little in awe when he saw that this time she was actually having fun dancing while Levy was clapping for her. Lucy was dressed in some basic jean shorts and a t-shirt instead of her bikini and Natsu was at least grateful for that.

"Oooff!" Lucy grunted as she lost her grip on the pole and fell after spotting pink hair standing halfway up the stairs.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Natsu!" Levy said with surprise as she took turns looking between him and Lucy.

It took Lucy a minute to get her bearings and then she suddenly realized why Natsu had probably ended up here.

"I'm sorry!" Lucy cringed, "I totally forgot…"

"It's ok" Natsu told her as he held up his cellphone, "You only missed five calls and a text. Oh, and Levy, you should probably lock your front door."

"Maybe you could ring a doorbell?" She replied rhetorically.

Natsu shrugged at her nonchalantly before turning back to Lucy, "We're not trying to police you too much, but just let us know where you are at least. When you fall off the radar it freaks us out. Well, it freaks me out."

Lucy blushed a little at Natsu's concern for her. However now that she got the medicine she needed and she wasn't going back to stripping any time soon, she figured it would be highly unlikely for her to run into Jenny again and get her hands on anymore of her special morphine. After bowing to Levy and saying her goodbyes she walked up the stairs to meet Natsu. Surprisingly he wasn't mad at all, he just had a goofy grin plastered on his face as he jogged back up the stairs and was headed to the front door.

"So we're just going back next door?" Lucy asked curiously.

Natsu scratched the back of his head before turning around to look at her, "Well… now that I think of it. You don't have a lot of clothes like that, do you?"

Lucy looked down at her current outfit and put a finger on her chin to take an inventory of her clothes, and she had almost nothing that wasn't related to her job at the strip joint or her other job at Wakaba's.

After shaking her head Natsu gave her a toothy grin before asking, "Want to go get some more not-distracting clothes then?"

"Distracting?" She asked him scowling with her hands on her hips.

Natsu tried to hide the blush that was spreading across his cheeks just thinking about it before saying, "Yea… your other outfits make it hard for me to think strait around you. It's not that I don't like it, but it doesn't help most of the time when I'm trying to focus on something else."

Lucy blushed a little by his indirect flattery before she smiled back at him, "Sure. We can go get some clothes, but I only have enough money in my savings and from my last night to buy maybe four or five things."

"I'll buy it" Natsu told her, "Or actually, Erik will" he held up a black colored credit card he pulled out of his wallet with a sheepish grin, "This is the band's card. Everything gets billed to the record company."

"Are you sure that's ok?" Lucy asked in disbelief, "I mean, isn't that for band related stuff?"

"You are band related stuff now, Luce. I mean, I can't imagine Erik will want you wearing a bikini to the studio when we start work tomorrow. What you have on will probably be fine, but I don't think buying you a few new things is that bad."

Lucy clasped her hands together with starts in her eyes as she chuckled before grabbing Natsu's arm and pulling him out of the house and down the street towards the town's mall.

"Don't you want to get a cab?" Natsu asked her almost laughing after they'd slowed down.

Lucy shook her head, "You hate riding in cars. Besides it's only a fifteen minute walk."

"I guess this means I have to carry all your bags?" Natsu asked sheepishly.

Lucy just nodded with an evil grin on her face before grabbing his hand again and pulling him down the street towards the mall. Natsu could've easily ran ahead of her and pulled her instead, but he decided to just relish the feeling of _her_ holding onto _him_. It seemed that now she was starting to let him inside a little and open up even more than she already had.

* * *

"Lucyyyyy" Natsu groaned form a bench outside the fitting room door, "How many types of jeans are there? I just thought there was normal and then jeans with holes. What gives?"

Lucy flung another pair of denim pants over the stall door at Natsu's feet before chiding him, "Well woman have more varying body shapes than men, so we have different cuts of jeans. There's boot cut, curvy, skinny, capri, boyfriend-"

"I get it I get it" Natsu grumbled before crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall.

Somehow he thought taking Lucy shopping would be a lot like taking Laxus or Gajeel shopping. They picked something off the rack, tried it on once and knew what size they were, picked out a few things in their size, paid, and left. Somehow Lucy needed to try _everything_ on. At least she was done with jeans. She found two pairs she liked and now she was shopping for tops. Shopping wasn't something Lucy did that often, Natsu could gather that much from her wardrobe and frugal living in her apartment. He figured that she at least deserved to enjoy it today and pick out nice things that she wasn't used to wearing.

"What do you think of this top?" Lucy asked coming out of the dressing room wearing a ruffled blouse that was floral print.

"Yeah it looks nice" Natsu commented unenthusiastically, earning a scoff from Lucy before she stormed back into the dressing room.

"Do you want to see the dress I picked out?" She asked after going back into the stall.

"Sure" Natsu grunted.

He heard Lucy shuffling around in the dressing room with her things and decided that if she was going to put on a dress it would take more time than the top or jeans. He decided to stand up and lean against he wall and people watch with all the other shoppers around in the store. It wasn't exactly a fancy place Lucy had picked out, much to Natsu's surprise seeing as her clothes were on someone else's budget, but Natsu didn't bother arguing with her since she seemed to find things she liked here. He knew Erik wouldn't complain about her fashion budget sense. However Natsu suddenly became uneasy when he realized there were a few people walking around and pointing to different parts of the store, with cameras around their necks.

"Shit" he hissed to himself.

Without a second thought he charged into Lucy's changing stall since they didn't lock. The blond turned around completely shocked and almost screamed until Natsu quickly pinned her with her back against the wall and put his hand over her mouth and shushed in her ear and told her to be quiet. She struggled for a moment before calming down and realizing he was looking over his shoulder at the stall door. It didn't take Lucy long to realize what was going on when she heard a few foot steps shuffle around the dressing room aimlessly while two people spoke to each other.

"I thought I saw them walk into this store" a woman said, "It's hard to mistake that pink hair for anyone else."

"Was he with that blond girl again? Maybe we could get a statement from them since Erik hasn't released one yet."

"Well we'll just have to look around until we find them. Tell the others to be on the lookout as well."

Lucy's eyes went wide before she pulled Natsu's hand off of her mouth and angrily whispered, "Couldn't you have hidden in another stall?!"

Natsu shrugged before he answered, "Well I had about 1 second to think and what if you walked out thinking I was there with them standing right there. They would've mobbed you."

Lucy realized that Natsu had a good point and managed to eventually slow her breathing. It didn't take long for a blush to creep up to her cheeks though. She was about to change into a dress so she'd taken her bra off and was standing in the dressing room naked except for her underwear.

"Natsu…" Lucy whispered cinching her eyes closed, "Don't look at me…"

Natsu turned to look at Lucy's face in confusion before he looked down and realized his clothed chest was pressing up against her bare one, hiding part of her cleavage against himself. The pinkette turned just a red as Lucy before trying to quietly stutter and apology.

"I'll close me eyes." he grunted before looking over his shoulder and turning around trying to fight the temptation to look back at the blond behind him.

In order to distract himself from what he'd just done, he pulled out his cell phone and called Erik.

 _"_ _Hello?"_ came his voice on the end of the phone, _"Is that you, Natsu?"_

The pinkette ran a frustrated hand over his face before saying, "I went to take Lucy clothes shopping and some how the misquotes showed up. We're hiding in one of the dressing rooms right now, but I doubt we can leave. My hair is how they seemed to spot us."

 _"_ _I probably should've told you to stay at home until I sorted out all of this chaos. Is there any way you can hide your hair?"_

"Yea. I can probably use my scarf. But how am I going to hide Lucy's face? Cause they're looking for that too…"

Lucy scowled from over his shoulder as she finished putting her jean shorts and shirt back on without bothering to try on the dress since it seemed they'd have to make a quick escape.

 _"_ _Are there any hats around or something?"_

"No"

 _"_ _What about sunglasses?"_

Natsu was abut to say no when he looked on top of his head and grinned, "Yea. I got one pair."

 _"_ _Give them to her. Tell her to pretend that she's blind. And don't use the scarf. You'll stand out even more you dumbass, try to find a hat. Call me when you guys get out safe."_

"Tch. Fine. Don't help us."

 _"_ _You're paying for all of this with the company card, that should be help enough."_ Erik groaned.

Natsu hung up the phone after cursing under his breath he turned to Lucy and said, "Wait here."

Natsu crawled under the stall into the next one. It was empty, but luckily there was a fedora hanging on one of the hooks. He grabbed it crawled back under before putting it on after handing his sunglasses to Lucy. He heaved a deep sigh as he cracked the door and saw the same two people hovering around the store looking for them.

"Put those on" Natsu told her, "Pretend you're blind. I'll put on this hat to try and hide my hair, I'll 'escort' you to the checkout stand where we'll pay for this shit and get the hell outta here."

"I'm sorry" Lucy sighed in disappointment, "You can't even take me anywhere without it causing problems."

"You aren't the problem" Natsu told her, "Our growing popularity is the problem. I didn't expect this kind of problem to honestly happen until after the full album release."

"Come on" he told her as he grabbed onto her wrist and scooped up her clothes in the other arm, "Let's go."

Lucy squeaked a little at being jerked forward, but instantly let herself be led as she pretended to aimlessly look around like she was blind. Despite Natsu's best efforts though, they were spotted before they were halfway to the front.

"Wait, sir!" the woman they heard earlier called behind them.

Natsu tried to completely ignore her and made his way to cashier and set Lucy's clothes down as he started ringing them up.

"Sir" the woman said as she stood in front of him trying to peer at his face, "It is you!" she shrieked.

"Yay it's me! Why is that important?" He asked her sarcastically, "Did I win something?"

"You're Natsu Dragneel!"

"No" he told her, "My name is Lector. I'm an art student at Magnolia University, you obviously have the wrong person."

"Of course not, you have pink hair!"

"I'm an _art_ student! We _all_ dye our hair. Now if you don't mind not harassing me buying clothes for my blind cousin I'd really appreciate it."

"So the girl who beat you up is your cousin?!" The lady asked writing things down on her note pad.

"No! Who the hell do you think I am?! Leave me alone!"

"Security!" the cashier finally chimed in seeing the situation escalating, "Escort the lady out, she's bothering customers."

"Wait I'm not bothering anyone! I'm a reporter!"

"No, you're a misquito" Natsu grumbled under his breath before handing his card to the cashier who swiped it.

The woman put up a small fuss as she was escorted out of the store. Natsu had tried to play it cool but he was about to lose his mind. He was lucky the fedora covered the stitches on his forehead. Lucy kept her head low and tried not to say anything.

The cashier read the name on the card and smiled before handing it back to him and saying, "If you'd like, we have a back exit that supposed to be for employees only, but considering the situation, I'm sure the manager would be ok with you using it."

Natsu looked at the card and realized it said "Natsu Dragneel" on it which is who he just denied being to the reporter. The cashier was obviously sympathetic and Natsu was grateful for it as he smiled at the man with relief and followed him towards the back of the store to a single door with a push bar and the man pushed it open into a back alleyway.

"Sorry it's not exactly nice, but it is discreet."

"That's totally fine. Thank you so much." Natsu waved before the man closed the door.

Natsu reached into his pocket to dial Erik, but right when took it out he saw Erik was already calling _him_.

"Yo" he answered the phone.

 _"_ _An art student buying clothes for his blind cousin, really? That was your best alias?"_

Natsu slapped his forehead. How fast did these people work. How the hell in ten minutes had Erik already been informed of this.

"I said my name was Lector not Natsu, so anything she says is false. The art student Lector is not Natsu, the lead singer of Dragons and Men. No one took pictures anyway, not that I saw."

 _"_ _They didn't, and that's the only thing that saved your ass. I have someone coming to pick you up, where are you?"_

"Were right outside the back entrance to Kohl's that's part of the mall. If someone even knows where that is."

 _"_ _We'll figure it out"_ Erik groaned, _"Just stay there and don't go anywhere else. If the lady spots you then just ignore her and say absolutely nothing."_

"Fine" Natsu groaned before Erik hung up and turned to Lucy, "We're hanging here until Erik can get someone to pick us up. He said to ignore that woman if she shows up again. Not sure how to do that when she gets close enough for you to smell what she had for lunch on her breath."

Lucy giggled at Natsu's grouchy comment before the two of them leaned up against the brick building keeping their eyes on the opening of the alleyway for either their get away ride, or the lady. Natsu said if he spotted her they were going to try and hide behind the dumpsters. Luckily though, a blue sedan pulled down the alleyway first and a woman rolled the window down.

"Get in losers" she told them, "I'm here to take you home."

Natsu heaved a sigh of both relief and annoyance. This girl had an attitude. He opened the back seat for Lucy before putting her bags in next to her and then sitting in the passenger seat. the woman had long white hair and a blouse with a deep v-neck in it almost rivaling Lucy's cleavage. Natsu somehow wasn't bothered by it though.

"Name's Sorano" she told them, "Erik told me to come get you guys. So much for a day off" she groaned.

"Sorry" Lucy told her first, "We didn't think that the press would find us that interesting."

"Unfortunately" Sorano grunted as she flipped the radio on while it was playing one of Dragons and Men's songs, "You guys are becoming an interest now. You can thank Erik and his preemptive release of your songs off your EP. He didn't think they'd catch on this fast, but they did."

"Does that mean the whole album is being pushed up?" Natsu asked inwardly cringing.

"No. It'll still be released after the new Year. It just means you guys are getting a lot of rap and if you give them something scandalous to work off of they're going to milk it for all it's worth."

Natsu just pressed his face against the car window as his motion sickness set in after Angel pulled out onto the road.

"What's his deal?" She asked irritated since hew as pressing his face on her newly detailed windows.

"He get's car sick" Lucy laughed nervously scratching the back of her head.

* * *

"Here you go, brats" she said as she unlocked the car doors after pulling up to Natsu's house.

Natsu groaned a thank Sorano before opening his door then opening the backseat to pick up Lucy's bags. The woman drove away after giving a single wave and Lucy and Natsu walked inside. At least their address was still a mystery to the press, however Natsu started to wonder how long that would last since it seems they couldn't even go out in public anymore without being hyper vigilant or wearing ridiculous disguises. He missed being able to go for a jog and just being another face in the crowd. He liked being popular and climbing up the music charts as the new king of punk, but he didn't like all the invasion of privacy it brought.

"Finally" Laxus growled after hearing the front door open and close.

"Sorry. I decided to take Lucy to get a few things and it ended up in a disaster."

"We know" Sting laughed, "Lector."

Natsu fumed as he carried Lucy's bags and stomped up the stairs to his room.

"At least he wasn't blind." Lucy shrugged as she laughed with Rouge and Sting.

The whole situation was kind of ridiculous, but Lucy decided the only way to get through it was the laugh about it. After a few minutes talking to them and apologizing for her disappearing act before Natsu found her, she walked up the stairs behind him.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she heard him shuffling through his dresser drawers.

"Well, since you're living here now, I figured I might as well make some space for you." he smiled at her as she saw him move some of his shirts out of a drawer and cram them into a different one, "There! Now you have the two bottom drawers to yourself."

"Its ok Natsu, really. I can just put them in my suitcase under the bed. That works just a well."

"But living out of a suitcase doesn't feel like home."

"Home…" Lucy whispered to herself, unfortunately Natsu heard her and inwardly cringed at his bold choice of wording.

"Yea. This is your home now, Luce. We're all your family, even those creeps next door." Natsu tried to laugh at the last part of his sentence.

"Home…" Lucy repeated again, a little louder with tears starting to pool in the corners of her eyes.

"D-don't cry!" Natsu stuttered as he shook Lucy's shoulders, "You've already cried enough. Save it for something important." He tried to say with a cheerful face.

"I-I'm not sad!" Lucy finally started having droplets fall from her eyes as she wiped them away, "I'm so happy! I haven't had a home, at least, not a place that felt warm like home is supposed to be. But you guys, you brought me here and you've done nothing but support me and help me, and it's more warmth and love than I've ever had or deserved!"

Natsu pulled Lucy into a hug as he cradled her head against his chest, "Aw Luce, everyone deserves a home, and a family, even if you have to make it instead of having it from the start."

Lucy nodded as she continued to sob happy tears into Natsu's shirt as the pinkette smiled against the stop of her head.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Please leave me a review to let me know what you guys are thinking! :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Lucy woke up with a smile on her face. She rolled over and rested her back against Natsu's side. She'd been getting comfortable sleeping like this for a few weeks now. Natsu was laying on his stomach with his arms folded under his pillow unconsciously he turned on his side so his chin was resting on top of Lucy's head and his arm resting along her side with his hand on her shoulder. Instinctively Natsu buried his nose into Lucy's hair and took a deep breath with a smile on his face. Lucy wanted to laugh but held herself back as she smiled instead and wiggled closer. Natsu was like a furnace and as the weather got colder and the leaves were all on the ground now, Lucy appreciated his body warmth.

"Alright love birds you better have clothes on" Gajeel grunted after he'd knocked on the door.

"Open it and find out" Natsu groaned as his smile disappeared and he woke up from a dream he was having that smelled like vanilla and honey.

"You guys are gross" Gajeel finally opened the door calling Natsu's bluff, "We're leaving for the studio in less than an hour, get ready will ya."

Lucy just angry screamed with her moth closed as she threw herself on her stomach and slammed her face into the pillow. She loved slowly waking up with Natsu breathing in her hair and making soft noises in his sleep. It didn't take her long to develop a deep and special place in her heart for the pink haired cretin.

"Still not a morning person?" Natsu teased as he raised his head onto his hand with his elbow in his pillow, "Anything I can do to change that?"

"Sleep" Lucy answered while pulling the comforter over her whole body and head.

Natsu smirked at her. Even when she was grumpy as hell she was still cute. He then got a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he scooted closer to the blond and poked at her side a few times. She wiggled to acknowledge he'd touched her but otherwise remained still.

"Oh god Lucy the bed bugs!" Natsu shouted with a laughing expression on his face despite his serious tone.

"Where?!" Lucy screeched as she sat up.

"Here!" Natsu laughed as he latched his hands onto Lucy's sensitive sides and wiggled his fingers to tickle her.

The blond screeched as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard. She was trying to reclaim her sides but Natsu's vice grip was unrelenting as he continued to move up to her armpits and even grabbed a foot and tickled her there. Lucy was rolling around begging him to stop and Natsu was ignoring her pleas for Mercy while he laughed himself. Lucy eventually tried to save herself by grabbing onto Natsu and wrapping herself around him like a koala. Natsu was still tickling her while she was clinging to him and the two rolled around on the bed until they rolled off the foot of the bed onto the sofa that was against the foot of the bed then crashed onto the floor near Natsu's bedroom door.

"Seriously?" came Gray's disgruntled voice from Natsu's doorway as he stood there mid stride on his way to the stairs.

"You don't have to watch" Natsu grinned up at him sensing his jealously.

"Then don't leave the door open you exhibitionist."

"You're one to talk ice tits. You're not even wearing a shirt right now."

"Can it" Gray grunted before he pulled Natsu's door closed.

Natsu chuckled a little to himself until he froze for a second. He looked down to see a blushing Lucy underneath him. When they'd wrestled Lucy had managed to have them land on the floor with Natsu between her legs and pinning her wrists to the floor. Natsu blushed a little before he let go of her and stood up to shuffle through his dresser for some clothes to wear for the day.

"Sorry" he scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed smiled, "Didn't mean to get carried away."

"It's ok" Lucy smiled back in the same way and waved her hand back and forth dismissively, "I started it."

Natsu just smiled at her and watched her from the corner of his eye as she disappeared inside the walk-in closet. It hadn't taken long for her to warm up to them. They were practically best friends now. The band relentlessly teased the two of them though as if they were a couple. Natsu didn't mind the teasing too much since he really wouldn't mind Lucy seeing him that way, but he wasn't sure if she did. He knew there was some kind of chemistry between them, but he was too scared to take that next step. He wanted to make sure that she was ok by herself as a person before he tried to force her into a relationship. Her drug issues were almost non existent now. She continued onto a lower dose of the bupremorphine and she didn't have any urges to relapse or go back to the drug. She seemed like a completely normal girl now. She'd developed a really close relationship to Levy who was next door to them. The girls had all moved into there with two girls to each bedroom. It was a tight fit but the rowdy bunch seemed to get along swimmingly, with the exception of Kagura's solitude complex. When she got irritated with the noise she would usually creep over to the boys house and sit quietly and watch TV with Rouge. Sting noticed her gravitation towards his almost brother and immediately developed a jealousy complex over it. Natsu loved pushing his buttons over it. When it was all said and done Sting was glad for Rouge. Not a lot of people understood the quiet boy besides Sting. It was a wonderful thing to see him with a girl who was equally as quiet and seemed to read his unspoken signals.

"Ready!" Lucy popped out of the closet in leggings with a long cream colored v-neck sweater.

Natsu smiled at her. No matter what she wore he always liked it.

He had on a jeans, a black t-shirt with a navy cardigan, and his signature white scarf with black lines making square spaces in the scarf. After slipping on his socks he and Lucy walked out of his room and jogged down the stairs. Into the kitchen to grab something for breakfast before they all walked to the studio. Some of the girls from next door were already sitting in their living room. Mira smiled at Lucy with a friendly wave telling her good morning. Lucy returned the greeting before following Natsu into the kitchen. If he opened the fridge first there'd be no food left for her.

"Who laughs that loud during sex?" Sting asked teasingly after spotting Lucy downstairs.

Lucy's face turned red as she turned around, "That's _not_ what happened!"

"Are you sure? Gray said Natsu had you on the floor." Sting smirked loving the way he could bother her.

Lucy just huffed and put her hands on her hips before puffing her cheeks out and sticking her tongue out at Sting as a response. Rouge chuckled from where he was sitting next to him with Kagura on the other side of him as well. Laxus just pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance and sat on the sofa next to Mira as she quietly shook her head at him before turning the news on the TV. Gray was sitting with Gajeel on the other sofa.

"Everyone ready?" Erza asked as Levy and Juvia shuffled inside behind her.

Yukino skipped up the steps a few seconds behind them and closed the door behind her while catching her breath. Cana had already gone to the studio ahead of them because she was going to learn some of the tech booth controls with the studio's other sound tech Bacchus. After the group had finished their breakfast they had a mass exodus out the front door into the city streets. After Erik had cleared up the media mess with Natsu and Lucy the press was under fire from city officials for personal space violations. It made at least walking to the studio in the morning a little easier. They'd have the occasional person who recognized them and tapped on their friend's shoulder and pointed while whispering and smiling. A few audacious fans would walk up and ask for an autograph. All-in-all it only took them an extra ten minutes to get to the studio now from the extra attention.

"Morning" Cana waved casually as they all walked into the studio.

The girls all smiled as they walked into the studio room and shuffled around the equipment to check the wiring. They told Cana the sound box inputs the boys were plugged into as they turned on the electrical equipment so the sound would come through. After a quick sound check of everyone playing their instruments one at a time for Cana to make sure everything was plugged in, the boys began tuning their instruments.

"They sure are amazing to watch, right?" Yukino sighed as she looked at Sting as he adjusted some of the gain and distortion on his synth keyboard.

"Especially Natsu" Cana laughed, "That human orangutang doesn't have to prove anything to anyone yet he's doing backflips off the furniture in there while he sings and shouts."

Lucy laughed and said, "He doesn't change outside the studio either. He thinks that doing handstands in his room is a good way to get 'creative juices' flowing. He's always moving."

"I'm sure his hyper personality is good for other things, right?" Erza asked in a jokingly flirtatious voice.

Lucy's face turned red as she whined, "Not you guys too!~"

"Other than busting his head open and sending him to the ER on your first night with him, you two have been perfect together." Levy smiled as she patted the back of Lucy's shoulder laughing.

Lucy still felt embarrassed about that incident. Natsu had gotten his stitches taken out a week ago and it had healed nicely. The small scar it left was along his hairline, so it was hard to tell anyway. Natsu kept telling her that it was fine and was pointing out his worse more physically visible scars to her to show it wasn't the end of the world. He had one on his neck and an x shaped scar on the side of his abs. He was a mess. Lucy didn't want him any other way though. His wild and spontaneous personality had sparked her inner sense of adventure she hadn't had since she was a child and it made her feel more free than she'd ever felt in her life. The girls turned their attention back to the boys and listened to the song they were now rehearsing.

 _I thought I had myself all figured out_

 _But I spent my whole life holding myself down_

 _And it seems to be that sort of thing I keep doing constantly_

 _Addicted to the pain I cause myself_

 _My head is floating somewhere in the clouds_

 _While I'm paid to entertain a lovely crowd_

 _They sing my songs and feel my pain_

 _Cause pain is what creates my fame_

 _A vicious cycle someday I'll get out_

 _I can't believe I'm standing here at all_

 _I can't believe I made it this far_

 _On my way with a smile on my face_

 _See the top and I'm not falling off_

 _And all I need is a microphone, I'll sing_

 _About the things that have been hurting me_

 _It's safe to say, all the kids, I relate_

 _To their lives, so just keep holding on_

Lucy felt like this song was a lot more emotionally charged than it appeared to a standard listener who knew nothing about Natsu and the boys. One thing that the two weeks had given them was a lot of nights of staying up late and talking while staring at the ceiling. She'd shared with Natsu how her life of wealth and being a Heartfilia was almost gone shortly after her mother died and her father abandoned her into the foster system before he disappeared completely. Natsu had shared how his father had abandoned him and if it weren't for Makarov he and Gray who was also orphaned would have been passed around the foster system as well. Laxus's father had died from a drug overdose leaving him in Makarov's care as well since Makarov was his grandfather and next of kin after Laxus's mother disappeared and left him as well. The boys had a rough time in high school and an even rougher time after graduating when they went into community college. Their grades were so bad they couldn't get into a university. However both Gray and Natsu ended up dropping out and Laxus had graduated from the school with an technical degree as an electrician but never used it. Instead the three of them found music, and played. They met Gajeel shortly after their newfound hobby and formed a band. It was made even better when Sting and Rouge joined after they'd graduated high school as well. They'd only all been together for almost 2 years, but they felt like family to Natsu, especially Laxus and Gray.

"Alright boys, that's a wrap. Ten minute break then you guys go into separate rooms to record individual tracks to make it easier for Makarov to polish it before putting it all back together." Cana called out.

"Why do they have to do that if they can play it together like what they just did?" Juvia asked rather confused.

"It's because while Natsu's singing, sometimes Gray's drums seep into his vocal track and the input for Laxus and Gajeel's guitars can sometimes cause an overlay as well. It's hard to make everything sound clean when they're all performing together. Especially if we were to do something like tweak Natsu's voice a little for an electronic effect while he's doing a screaming part, then suddenly gray's symbol sounds clean and there's an electric one too that messes up the sound. See what I mean? It's what Erik wants in order to make the album the best sound quality possible. It's no biggy. They can all listen to the track they just made in here then sing, play, or whatever along to it and we'll record that separate track before cleaning them up, adding effects and polishing it all together."

"Wow Cana" Levy sat up in surprise, "You've sure learned a lot in the past week you've taken up the sound booth."

"I'm not doing it alone" She smiled, "Bacchus comes in here in the morning to help me out and teach me some new stuff. It helps the old man too. Makarov has a lot of better things to do then sit in here and manage the sound system for one band."

* * *

"Ok Natsu, you ready?" Lucy asked through the microphone of a smaller recording room with soundproof glass between them.

"Yea" Natsu gave her a toothy grin and thumbs up.

Lucy smiled back at his energy. They'd been at it for at least two hours now. Lucy had recoded over thirty different tracks that she thought were good of Natsu singing through just one of his songs. She played the backtrack the band had made one more time as Natsu belted through the song. Even though Natsu had done this over a hundred times by now she noticed how he never lost the glint in his eyes. These songs were like his diary, a personal glimpse into his feelings. She could admire that. She still hid her journal away in the closet underneath a pile of Natsu's laundry which she knew he'd never touch. She did that to keep the pinkette from nosing into her personal business. She'd caught him several times searching around his room and through her suitcase before. He jokingly called them "drug inspections" but Lucy knew what he was looking for. She had written down in there how she felt about Natsu and how she'd developed a deep like for him and a respect that no one else she knew had earned.

"You almost done?" Erik popped his head through the door of the studio.

Lucy had muted her microphone on her side of the glass so Natsu was in his half of the booth singing away with his eyes closed so he didn't noticed him. Lucy nodded as she pushed a few buttons on the sound board to turn the music and Natsu down so she could hear Erik. The man entered the booth and closed the door behind him and sat down in a rolling chair next to Lucy.

"You guys were surprisingly a godsend" he smirked at her, "I didn't think I'd be able to get this much done, but if there's someone giving each of them individual recording attention hen it literally cuts the time to a quarter of what it would be."

Lucy blushed a little at the flattery and smiled. She was glad that she was useful. She was wondering what Erik was doing hanging out in the sound booth though. There were plenty of other band members he could be checking on.

"Looks like that's a wrap" Erik said to Lucy as Natsu finished the last line of the song before the recording cut off.

When Natsu looked up from the lyrics he noticed Erik sitting next to Lucy in the booth and raised a questioning brow. He didn't know exactly what Erik was doing in there, but he hoped that it meant something good. When Natsu walked into the booth he gave Erik a casual nod before the two started talking about songs and deadlines and Natsu smirked saying he already had a few more in the making. He'd just need some practice time with the rest of the band. Erik told him that there was a way to build a small guest house size studio behind the house for the band to use for practice. He said it would be better to use it to record demos and practice rather than having to walk all the way to the studio since they were starting to become a bit of a hot topic with the press. Natsu scratched his head without looking at Lucy hoping she still wasn't feeling bad about his forehead.

"I can understand that. It'd be nice to work from home a bit" Natsu said.

"Unfortunately" Erik cut in, "There's not really anything for the girls to do at the home studio while you practice aside from helping with the electrical equipment and sound booth for record rough demos to send to the record label to review. They'll have to come here and do some paper work and such for a few hours a day to help keep things in line. However it won't be that much. Maybe three or four hours in the morning and they'll be done and back to being your assistants."

"Yea, just curious why'd you have to move them next door?" Natsu asked with a half scowl.

"Well it'd be better then moving them _all_ into your bedrooms like Lucy, right?" Erik said with a smirk as the blond beside him blushed.

Natsu didn't say anything to combat his comment since saying 'it's not like that' would be a lie since Natsu was trying to delude himself into thinking it was like that. He was sleeping every night to his favorite person in the world, even if she might not see him the same way he saw her. She at least let him get close to her with sharing her past and letting him get close to her at night to wrap his arms around her.

"Jeeze Erik you're such a pervert" Lucy grumbled, "You have Kinana over at your place, so what the hell are you making those comments for?"

"Well I'm not in denial over it. Kinana and I are a 'thing' and everyone knows it."

Lucy just crossed her arms pouting grumbling, "Who are you calling in denial?"

Erik just chuckled at her before he said, "Well I do have some good news for you kiddos. Since the press is starting to sniff around for you and it'll take some time to build a new guest house studio behind your home the company's decided to let you guys go on a little vacation for two weeks."

"Two weeks?!" Natsu asked in disbelief. "Where?"

"Somewhere secluded of course. We decided it's a bit cold here, so it'd be a good idea to send you guys to the Maldives. You guys can work out the sleeping arrangement yourselves but reserved enough bungalows to have two in each."

Lucy blushed already knowing that Natsu was going to have her in his bungalow and it was non negotiable. She was afraid that it would offset the number though and make someone else be rooming with a guy.

* * *

"The Maldives?!" Erza exclaimed excitedly, "I would've never been able to go there before!"

"We should drink to celebrate!" Sting incited as he held up a bottle of vodka.

Visiting the club and having Erik let him drink under age had led Sting to develop a few bad habits including spontaneous binge drinking. Sting wasn't an alcoholic and a drunk, but whenever there was an occasion for alcohol he seemed to be all over it.

"Let's play a drinking game" Cana smirked, "If no one can out drink me, then I make the sleeping arrangements for the Maldives."

Everyone in the room looked wide eyed at her and her obviously insidious plan before Sting was the first to put down two shot glasses in front o her an accept the challenge. Of course she drank him under the table so he ended up resting his head in Yukino's lap the rest of the night trying not to puke. Laxus didn't bother since he thought it was stupid, so he was disqualified, Rouge tried, but he was down in less time than even sting. Gray didn't normally drink but he didn't want Cana to have control over the sleeping arrangements with him having no say in the matter. He rarely drank, but he did last a good bit before he too ended up having to lay on the floor. Natsu approached the table and surprisingly he lasted the longest despite his not drinking that often. He took eventually crawled over to Lucy to groaning in mild discomfort.

"All of you are wimps!" Cana laughed as she chugged the rest of the bottle of hard liquor. They'd gone through three bottles total between all of them challenging her, but she was still sitting upright and able to stay awake and function therefore she'd won the challenge. They all inwardly cringed at Cana's sick sense of humor and were afraid to know what her sleeping arrangement was for them. No doubt it would be co-ed since Cana usually got a sick kick out of making everyone uncomfortable.

* * *

The next day they all woke up in the living room with hangover except for Cana who was trying to fix everyone a glass of water with aspirin. Nobody was particularly happy with Sting's sudden drinking idea and then Cana's little game that ended up messing everyone up except her and Laxus who refused to participate.

"You guys are hopeless" Laxus grunted as he came down the stairs.

Since he was sober he had retired to his own room last night while everyone was still drunkenly trying to have incoherent conversations and sing random songs.

"Our plane leaves tomorrow morning" Cana informed all of them, "So let's not get you guys drunk again tonight. Instead you should pack your stuff. Erik even arranged for us to be able to use he record company's private jet. Since he told them that all of the guys except Gray get motion sickness. It'd be bad press if five band members threw up on other plan passengers. Besides it's a pretty long plane ride. I'm pretty sure it's a fifteen hour flight from the Magnolia International Airport."

"I think I'll go ahead and go pack now" Sting said as he stood up from where Yukino was still passed out, "Might take a nap too…"

"You guys suck" Were the only words out of Gray's mouth before he trudged upstairs to go shower and sleep off his migraine.

Gajeel was just a little grouchy but otherwise appeared fine as he asked, "So Cana why do you get to make the bungalow arrangements?"

"Because Erik put me in charge of it since I'm the lead tech for you guys anyway. I just thought it would be funny if I gave you guys a way to try and save yourselves from my match making skills."

Gajeel just scowled at the drunk who was already sipping on a mimosa. The girls slowly woke up and shuffled out back to their own house to puke and go back to sleep for the rest of the day, except the one girl who lived in the guy's house.

"I don't understand why they're denying it" Rouge grumbled as he looked at Lucy and Natsu who were spooning on one of the couches trying not to wake up and face their awaiting hangovers.

Laxus shrugged before he said, "Natsu's not good with women or girls. He's an insensitive and dense asshole sometimes, and I think that he doesn't realize that she does like him. He's probably inwardly pouting that she doesn't. But it's not my business and I'm not his psychiatrist. He can figure it out on his own."

Everyone shrugged as Laxus walked into the kitchen to cook some food that would undoubtedly wake Natsu up so that they could try and figure out what the plan was for getting to the airport and other transportation issues like how they were going to survive a fifteen hour flight.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Move out!" Sting said enthusiastically as they all headed into the three stretch limos waiting for them in front of the two houses.

Their bags were packed into a separate van before they all huddled around five in each limo. Sting, Rouge, Yukino, Kagura, and Cana took one. The next one had Lucy, Mira, Natsu, Gray, and Laxus. The last Limo had Gajeel, Levy, Juvia and Erza. Gajeel sighed at the headache he was probably going to have riding in a limo full of girls. It was only a forty five minute drive to the south side of the city where the airport was on the edge of town. After climbing out of the car the chauffeur told them to grab their carry on bags and that the rest of the suitcases would make their way onto the private jet. They were escorted inside all wearing sunglasses and Natsu wearing a hat to hide his outrageous pink hair. It didn't take long though for all of them to be spotted and followed by flashing cameras.

"Where the hell are we going?" Gray grunted before Juvia latched onto his arm and pointed in a direction.

"Juvia was told the private terminal with our gate is this way!" the bluenette spoke as they tried to speed walk away from the press following them.

Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand as he pulled her to walk faster in the direction of the entrance to the terminal. Of course they were given VIP passes to flash at TSA that let them into the private terminal before undergoing security further in. After taking a deep breath at seeing security restrain the five reporters following them with cameras back at the entrance they all relaxed as they continued to walk.

"Any reason you two are still holding hands?" Sting asked with a mischievous grin on his face, "Do you two liiiiiiike each other?"

Lucy's face turned red as she turned around to scowl at Sting before pulling her hand out of Natsu's against her will. She was hoping Natsu hadn't noticed and that no one else would either if she just kept her hand there. Natsu was a little pissed and looked over his shoulder to glare at Sting too. He didn't want Lucy to let go of his hand. He had grabbed hers out of impulse in order to not lose her as they dashed to the terminal, but when they got through and she didn't seem to pull away he deiced to just be nonchalant about it and see how long she'd leave her hand encased in his.

"Sting stop being a cock block" Rouge grumbled as he punched Sting on the shoulder, "Let them work it out themselves."

Lucy sighed a little. She wished Rouge could be the voice of reason for everyone. He occasionally teased them on a much smaller scale, but he didn't make penis jokes or sing childish songs about sitting in a tree and kissing like Sting did. After they walked down the terminal for a minute they came to a much smaller scale TSA walk through where they all threw their bags on a conveyer belt to be run through a machine and looked at. Lucy set her purse down on it before she walked through the metal scanner and set if off. Everyone looked at her as she sheepishly smiled and walked back fishing through her pockets for any coins that might've set it off. Her belt was plastic and leather, but she decided to take it off anyway along with her shoes in case there was something wrong with them. After setting everything she could think of down on the conveyer belt she walked through again, and the alarm still went off.

"I'm afraid we'll need to pull you to the side ma'am I'm very sorry" a female TSA agent said calmly as she pointed to a small bench against the wall while everyone else went through the scanner just fine. Gray forgot to take his necklace off and set off the alarm, but after he took it off he was fine. Everyone else made it through no problem and Lucy was mad that this was only happening to her. Until a sudden realization dawned on her and her face turned blood red as she remembered why she was probably setting off the security system.

"Shit…" she hissed to herself as she tried to cover her red face.

Cana looked over with a knowing grin and a devious face at Lucy's situation. She just gave her a thumbs up and said good luck before she walked down the terminal to find a bar that was by their gate for their jet.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" Lucy hissed under her breath until Natsu walked over.

"Woah" he laughed, "Never heard you use that much language before. What's wrong?"

"I… can't really explain it to you…" Lucy said trying to cover her face as she bit her lips with a crooked expression of embarrassment.

"Oh?" Natsu asked crossing his arms, "There's something you haven't told me yet?"

Lucy just scowled at him. It was a usual thing for them to have late night conversations and share almost all their personal information with each other. Lucy even told Natsu when she was on her period so that he would understand if she got pissed easily. There were very few things Lucy didn't share with Natsu and not because he wasn't supposed to know, but because she hadn't thought to share them and they weren't relevant to him. One of those things being that she currently had nipple piercings in and she couldn't take them out since she hadn't had them for a year yet. How she was going to explain this to the TSA lady she didn't know but she knew it was going to be soon when the lady walked over with a hand metal scanner and told her to spread her arms and legs out as she hovered the device over her body.

"Do you have any medical implants?" the lady asked as she waved the wand over Lucy's legs.

"No" she answered.

"What about piercings?" The woman asked as she waved it over Lucy's stomach.

"Yes…" Lucy choked on her words right when he wand hovered over her chest and started beeping.

Natsu's face was completely blood red as he covered his mouth trying not to laugh at the situation. The TSA lady looked at her with an 'are you serious?' expression before she gestured for Lucy to follow her into one of the private strip search rooms. Natsu was left behind standing there laughing so hard he was holding his stomach. Lucy was mortified. At least everyone else had gone through and went to the gate, so only Natsu had witnessed the embarrassing event.

After Lucy lifted her shirt up and pulled her chest out of her bra, the TSA lady didn't bother touching her at all as she just crossed her arms and said, "whelp, doesn't look like a bomb to me. But be mindful next time. If you know you're going to fly go ahead and take those out ahead of time."

"Yes ma'am" Lucy sighed as she pulled her shirt back down

She didn't feel like arguing with the woman that she wasn't able to take them out yet. Lucy took a deep breath before she walked out to a Natsu who was still sputtering and giggling while she walked to him.

"I had no idea" he laughed, "I would've thought you would mention something like that at some point y'know."

Lucy shook her head trying to stop the blood from rushing to her cheeks, "It was a stupid drunk birthday piercing."

"Those are the best kind" Natsu laughed as he folded down a septum piercing he was hiding in his nose.

It was a broken hoop so he could fold it up into his nose and no one would ordinarily see it.

"No way!" Lucy said as she looked at it, "We're you really drunk?"

"I was really high" Natsu laughed as he scratched his head, "I also got a tattoo."

"Where?" Lucy asked wondering if she'd regret inquiring about the location.

"You're not ready to see it yet" he told her with a toothy smirk causing her to blush again.

"Finally, you two! What the hell was that?" Laxus asked very disgruntled that they had to wait to board the plane because of those two.

"Just something Lucy forgot about" Natsu smiled, "But no worries, TSA lady stripped searched her so she's clean."

"Natsu!" Lucy swatted him over the back of the head as he laughed.

Everyone just sweat dropped except for Cana who laughed as she realized Natsu figured out what had set off the metal detector. That must be a fun new discovery between 'friends.' Cana tried to push them together more than anyone else. She didn't just verbally harass them, but she tried to poke and prod at them and embarrass them into doing things. Egging them on in drunk games or making one of them lose a bet and do something to the other always kept her entertained. It was a wonder they hadn't given into the tension yet, because everyone else seemed to see it quite clearly.

"Let's just get on the plane" Gray huffed as the walked down a rickety tunnel in the wall to board onto the jet.

They all were pleasantly surprised to see a few sitting areas like a living room with arm chairs that had seat belts as well as a few lounge chairs, TVs and a bar. Natsu immediately sat down at the arm chair that was near the table that had some board games underneath it. He wasn't sure how he'd fare with his motion sickness, but he knew flying in the air felt better than rolling on the ground for some reason. He would just classify himself as carsick if it weren't for the fact that boats made him feel the same way.

"Sit here Luce!" Natsu called out as he patted the seat next to him.

Lucy just sheepishly grinned before throwing her backpack int he overhead bin and closing it then sitting in the chair. Natsu was thumbing through some games before he came across the perfect one. Cards Against Humanity. He put the ominous black box down on the table as Lucy looked at it questioningly.

"Cards Against Humanity, the card game for horrible people" Gajeel chimed in as he took a seat across from Lucy, "I'm game."

"Cool. Hey ice tits! You in on this?" Natsu yelled at Gray who was throwing his bag in an overhead bin and closing it.

He looked over at the table and recognized the card game before he said, "Go eat shit. That games always makes me feel like hitler. Find someone else to demoralize themselves."

"What's this?" Sting asked with Rouge beside him as they pointed at the game.

Natsu explained the basic premise which was a really adult and disgustingly graphic version of apples to apples which almost everyone had played at least once in their life. Sting decided that it sounded interesting enough and of course Rouge threw himself in as well as both of them took a seat around the table. Natsu dealt the cards out before he had a devilish smirk on his face.

"So the way you determine the first judge is… whoever took a shit last" Natsu grinned as he looked around, "We go clockwise from there."

"8pm last night" Sting said unfazed.

"uhm… 7pm last night" Gajeel said as he wondered why this was necessary.

"11pm last night…" Rouge sweat dropped.

"Midnight" Natsu added before they all looked at the blond.

Lucy shook a little as she stammered "this morning at 6am" as she blushed from embarrassment.

"Alright! Lucy shit last so she judges first!" Natsu called out as he pulled a black subject card off the top of the pile.

"What kind of game is that?" Kagura asked mildly disgusted at the fact that Natsu was yelling about Lucy's bowel movements.

Mira laughed a little before she said, "Remember that game Cana all made us play once when we were drinking, and you folded because all your cards repulsed you?"

"Yea" Kagura grumbled.

"Well, that's that game" Levy had a little crooked smile, "It might've grossed you out, but I think it's kinda funny. It depends on who you play with. Some people take it too literally."

"You mean Erza?" Juvia asked before an ominous presence was radiating behind them.

"What about me?" she asked dangerously.

"Nothing at all" Levy and Juvia waved their hands in front of them feigning ignorance.

"Anyways, I'm going to use this time to catch up on the issues of Cosmo I've missed this month" Kagura chimed as she took her phone out to open her e-subscription to the magazine.

Levy took out a stack of books before plopping them on the floor by her feet, and Erza was looking through a picture book of deserts. Mira found herself looking out the window and occasionally peering at the brooding blond that was sitting towards the back of the plane by himself. She wondered why he was such a lone wolf, but she decided that she'll go bother him later after the plane had taken off. Gray was busy trying to peel Juvia off of his arm as he fastened his seat belt at a little table by a window of the plane with one chair on the other side of the table.

"This is your captain Yajima speaking" an old man's voice came through the speakers, "I heard you young'uns are headed to the Maldives! Well, I hope you all have fun. I plan on trying to make this trip as smooth and safe as possible. It'll be about a fifteen hour flight, possibly longer depending on the weather patters over the Atlantic. Take note of the emergency exit next to the cockpit up front, the two on either side of the bar, and then the two in the back near the restroom. If we lose cabin pressure then the oxygen masks will deploy, secure yours before helping someone else. Even if it feels like oxygen isn't coming through just breathe deeply. Hopefully you won't have to remember any of that, but flotation devices are located underneath all of the chairs in this plane as well. I hope you guys enjoy your flight and your trip."

They all looked around as Yajima was speaking about the exits and the oxygen masks and so on. He told them that they'd be taking off in just a moment as soon as he got clearance from the airport tower to use a runway.

"Let's wait just a minute before we start piling cards on the table until the plane is stable and up in the air" Lucy nervously laughed as she saw Natsu ready to dump all the cards on the table, "It'll make less of a mess if some of them were to fall off."

Gajeel simply nodded as Sting and Rouge shrugged. They waited and sure enough in less than two minutes the plane was back up and moving towards a runway as a man with two neon orange rods was directing their movements. Lucy felt her stomach curl a little at the inertia of the plane taking off. Even though it's smaller than a commuter plane that would hold a few hundred people it was still large enough to make her stomach feel like a brick was falling on it as the plane lifted off the pavement and quickly made it's ascent upwards.

"Ughhhhhnnnn" A groan came from beside her before Natsu's face was on her shoulder.

She looked around and Gajeel's head was in his hands and Rouge and Sting were leaning back in the arm chairs gripping their stomachs. She knew that flying made her a little nauseas, but it probably felt worse to people who had regular motion sickness. The limo ride over wasn't much fun either since Mira was the only one who wasn't groaning. She figured the other limos were close to the same.

About ten or so minutes later Yajima's voice came in over the speakers, "We've reached our cruising altitude. Passengers are now free to unfasten their seatbelt and roam about the cabin."

Natsu let out a large breath as he slowly got a grip on himself. His body was slowly adapting to the inertia of the plane and now that they weren't traveling upwards, it didn't feel as if they were moving at all. The only hint at moment in the smooth jet was the passing clouds outside some of the windows. After everyone regained their composure, Natsu went about drawing the black card for the game.

"Blank, the musical?" Lucy asked still not exactly sure how to play the game.

"So that blank spot right there, we're all going to play a card with a word or phrase that's going to fill that in, and then you have to decide which one is funniest" Natsu pointed at the card, "But you have to shuffle all the white cards around before you pick them up so you don't know who put what."

Lucy nodded as she watched everyone snicker before placing a card down. After shuffling them around she picked them up and wondered what pit of hell she was going to go to if she said them out loud. Natsu of course read her reaction and along with Rouge and Sting laughed at her.

"Uhmmm…."

"You have to read them as part of the card" Sting chimed in.

"Anal beads… the musical." Lucy mumbled as she set the white card down and everyone grinned at each other.

"Menopause, the musical. Wait, isn't that an actual musical?" Lucy asked confused before shrugging and placing the card down and reading the next.

"Two midgets shitting into a bucket… the musical." Lucy didn't find that one as funny as she did disturbing.

"Not wearing pants, the musical. Well no offense but you boys walk around in your boxers singing in the house to make that a real thing" Lucy said sternly before laughing at Rouge and Sting's blushing faces. Natsu only laughed since he really had no shame about walking around in front of Lucy in his underwear."

The girls nearby could slightly overhear their card game and were either snickering or searching for earplugs to keep from hearing it since it was rather explicit and crude.

"And last but not least… now that's just sick" Lucy groaned before she read the card outlaid, "Firing a rifle into the air while balls deep in a squealing hog… the musical."

They all tried not to give away who had put that card down as they looked at each other in confusion. That card was descriptive and if played right it was a winner, but in this case it just stuck out like a sore thumb.

"I think I'm gunna go with… anal beads" Lucy sighed in defeat as she held up the black card waiting for someone to claim it.

"I didn't think you were into that kind of thing" Natsu whispered playfully in her ear as he leaned over to take the card.

"I'm not!" Lucy yelled at him before crossing her arms and looking at Gajeel who was judging next.

"How did I lose my virginity?" Gajeel called the subject card out before laying it on the table waiting for everyone to pick a card.

Lucy wasn't sure which card to pick. The one that was going to send her to hell, or the one that was going to send her there in a flaming chariot. Eventually she made a decision and was the last one to throw a card down.

"I lost my virginity because…" Gajeel murmured as he looked over the white cards, "We have: Incest. Putting out. Stranger Danger. And Glory holes. You guys are sick bastards. I pick… glory holes."

Lucy was embarrassed as she reached out and took the black card from Gajeel's hand and every just raised a brow at her while she nervously laughed under her breath. The next person to judge was Rouge. He picked a black card and read it aloud.

"What gives me uncontrollable gas?"

"hah!" Natsu laughed before he slapped a white card down right away.

Lucy took her time deciding again and eventually all the cards were in as Rouge gathered him up into his hand.

"I get uncontrollable gas because of… Alcoholism, Kanye West, Jerking off into a pool of children's tears, and German dungeon porn. God you guys are dark…"

Everyone chuckled a little at Rouge's obvious hard time in picking card. All of them were just really bad and made no sense.

"Alcoholism. I guess, since liquor seems to give Sting bad gas."

"Rouge!" Sting hissed at his friend as the dark haired boy laughed with his hand over his face.

"Thank you" Gajeel smirked as he took the card from Rouge.

Sting had already drawn a card and was reading it before Gajeel as finished taking the card out of Rouge's hand for winning the round, "What… What brought the orgy to a screeching halt?"

"Oh my god" Lucy mumbled under her breath.

The subject matter was just getting worse as they all seemed to be laughing more easily at all the stupid cards they put down in hopes of wining the round. Sting scooped up the white cards everyone threw down before reading them aloud. "The orgy was brought to a screeching halt by… Grandma, Harry Potter Erotica, Black people, or Penis Envy."

Everyone laughed at the last card as Sting declared it the winner and Natsu took the card from Sting's hand, "Already got two!" Natsu cheered as he pulled into the lead.

"Good thing you're judging now doofus. Can't win this round now." Sting stuck his tongue out at Natsu.

"What will always get you laid?" Natsu laughed before he set the card down.

Lucy didn't waste time putting down the most horrible card she had in her hand as she waiting on everyone else before Natsu picked the cards back up to read them aloud. "What will always get you laid? We have… My relationship status, A sad hand job, An unfortunately time errection, and… oh god… date rape?" Natsu read the last one laughing a little but at the same time a little disturbed, "I guess I'll go with date rape since that's the one that actually has to do with having sex…"

Lucy reached over silently and snatched the card out of Natsu's hand as the pinkette looked at her with surprise in his eyes and a raised brow. Natsu had expected that to be a card from the immature Rouge or Sting, but he didn't expect Lucy to be that dark. This card game was starting to let him in on her sick sense of humor, as well as everyone else's. It broke down a few walls between them since the game wasn't a reflection of themselves, but it was a reflection of their comfort level with each other now. After several more rounds Natsu finally won as the Haiku was finally drawn, and while Sting had won it, Natsu had one the game with the most black card points. Lucy came in second, Followed by Sting then Gajeel and Rouge in last.

"Again?" Sting asked excited as he was shuffling the cards around.

"I think I'm good" Lucy smiled sheepishly, "I've had enough crude humor for one plane ride. I think I'll go catch up on some of my shows I missed on my laptop."

They all nodded and Lucy opened the overhead bin to grab her computer before slipping towards the back of the plane where there were a few beds with curtains that could be pulled across for mild privacy. She avoided Laxus's glare at her since she'd seemed to invade his entire back half of the plane he was using to sulk by himself for the fifteen hours. After crawling in she felt comfortable on the little pile of pillows behind her as she flipped the lid of her computer up. She scrolled through until she found her show New Girl. She knew it was a little chick flick-ish, but it was funny as hell and was her guilty pleasure since it was full of sex and sex jokes. She didn't really give off that persona in front of a lot of people.

"Whatcha watchin'?" came a familiar voice as the curtains to the bed were pulled open by Natsu.

Lucy jumped a little in surprise since she wasn't expecting anybody else, "hum, just Netflix."

"Mind if I join?" Natsu asked as he was already crawling onto the bed to sit behind Lucy with her in his lap as he rested his head on her shoulder to look at the computer screen.

"Well since you waited until I answered to come in here…" Lucy growled a little over her shoulder with a small scowl.

"Sorry" Natsu smiled at her trying to play it off and make her not mad at him.

"I guess. But I'm watching what I want. You'll just have to deal with it."

"That's fine" he told her, "If I don't like it I can always sleep."

"So I'm a pillow now?" Lucy asked playfully pretending to be annoyed.

"mmmmmmmmaybe" Natsu hummed as he laughed a little before she turned her attention back to the computer.

The plane's onboard wi-fi was a life saver as Lucy connected to it before she opened up her Netflix account and scrolled to New Girl. She'd been trying to catch up with the new season that just came out. Natsu didn't say anything and just watched the show. He kept asking Lucy questions about which character was who and their backstory, and why they were doing certain things, or why something was funny that seemed like an inside joke from a previous episode. Eventually she shushed him and told him to just watch. Natsu caught on fairly quick and laughed at a good bit of the jokes. However he noticed after a few hours that he was the only one laughing. He looked a little to the side to try and see Lucy's face and he saw that she'd fallen asleep against his chest. Natsu shook his head inwardly chuckling before he reached carefully over to her computer and typing in Game of Thrones and watching where he'd left off. He was trying to catch up to Gajeel, Sting, and Rouge. They were almost a whole season ahead of him.

"What's this?" came a soft whisper that Natsu instantly cringed at, "Netflix and chill?"

"Piss off, numb nuts" Natsu grumbled at Gray as his head peeped in through the curtains.

"You kids better not be getting it on back here" Gray smirked before he noticed Lucy was in fact asleep, "Oh, sorry."

"Yea, dumbfuck. Leave us be before you wake her up" Natsu hissed before Gray disappeared from the curtains.

"It's fine" Gray said as he walked towards the front of the plane where everyone was sitting, "They weren't having sex after all."

"Why are you guys so concerned with it?" Rouge laughed, "Even if they were, did you really want to see it?"

Gray's face turned red at Rouge's comment before he said, "Well they shouldn't be doing it in an open cabin plane with just a curtain between them and us. They could at least wait until they get to the resort."

"Well just let them be. They're always together anyway. If they haven't done anything yet, I don't think they'll do it a mile high with about ten other people within feet of them." Rouge finished the argument before turning his attention back to his and Kagura's chess game.

Sting felt left out and made himself the designated referee as he watched their match. Laxus was still brooding in the back of the plane, but Mira had gone back there quietly browning through her cell phone and keeping in quiet company. Erza, Cana, and Yukino were all sitting at the bar chatting while Juvia was still attached to Gray at the hip trying to talk to him. Gray was reluctant to engage her in a conversation, but eventually gave in since Gajeel was chatting with Levy and everyone else seemed to be occupied having a good time.

* * *

It was dark outside the plane as Yajima's voice came over the speakers, "We'll begin our descent into the Maldive's in about twenty minutes, so if you could please return to a chair with a seatbelt and fasten it as well as make sure any lose items around the cabin are secured or stored int he overhead bins."

The loud voice coming through the speaker jolted Lucy awake. She didn't realize she'd called asleep and what surprised her more was that she was sleeping against Natsu, who was also waking up which meant he had taken a nap with her as well. She was sure she fell asleep before he did though, because her show had changed from New Girl to some strange show with a blond woman searching for giant eggs and there was a sarcastic midget running around. When she moved the mouse she saw the title Game of Thrones pop up and she rolled her eyes. Of course Natsu would've put something like that on.

"mmmm" Natsu grumbled groggily as he rubbed his eyes, "Sleep well?" he asked as he popped his back.

He'd fallen asleep sitting up with Lucy up against his chest. She'd managed to curl herself into his arms in a comfortable position, but he wasn't able to lay down without moving her, so Natsu had leaned his head back against the wall behind the bed and closed his eyes before drifting off to sleep.

"Yea. It wasn't bad" Lucy yawned back at him before crawling away from his chest and immediately missing the warmth.

The both emerged from the bed and walked towards the other part of the plane where everyone was already sitting in a seat with their seatbelt fastened. Lucy and Natsu walked over to a little table by the window as they fastened theirs and felt the plane slowly dropping before being his with a gust of wind as it descended. Their ears popped and Lucy was pretty sure all the guys except Gray were getting sick again. The pained look on their faces said it all. After a ten minute descent the jet came to a quick stop on the runway before the jet was lined up with a platform for them to walk off of and down onto the cement of the tarmac. The airport was a lot smaller than Magnolia's considering this was just a couple of small islands.

"We'll collect your bags off of the jet quickly if you don't mind stepping into the limos" a man with a sign that had the band's name on it told them, "Your boat to the Maldives departs shortly."

"A boat?" Natsu groaned.

He didn't have too much trouble with a plane ride but he would be hanging his head over the rail for the whole boat ride. Lucky for him it was only a twenty minute boat ride from the island that had the airport to the one where the resort was.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued…**_


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Alright listen up you shmucks" A tipsy Cana told them as they were climbing off the boat onto the dock, "In my hand I have assigned reservations for each little bungalow. Come get it from me and you'll check in at the resort desk ahead, then they'll give you a map to show you where to go. All of ours should be close together, but anyways, you'll find out from me who your roommate will be."

Everyone just inwardly cringed as they sweat dropped and each got handed a sheet of paper form Cana before walking up to the check in desk to get their room keys.

"First of all, Natsu and Lucy" Cana called out.

Everyone mumbled under the breath that they saw that one coming. That wasn't a surprise to anyone, and Natsu seemed to be pleased with it as an embarrassed Lucy followed behind him to go check in and get their keys.

"Next, Sting and Yukino"

"Why are you doing co-ed arrangements?" Sting grumbled with mixed feelings.

He was happy to be roomed with Yukino, but he didn't like being separated from Rouge either. After walking up and taking the paper he noticed Yukino was a little insecure about it as well. At least he wasn't alone in the awkward nightmare Cana was creating.

"Alright, Gajeel and Levy."

"You know I don't like him!" Levy scowled as she pointed to Gajeel.

She was partially lying since getting to know him over the past few weeks being his assistant had allowed her to grow a kind of respect for him. Gajeel gave her a predatory smirk as he walked up to Cana and took the sheet of paper out of her hand and walked towards the registration desk.

Looking over his shoulders back at the bluenette he asked, "Coming, shrimp?"

Levy stomped her heels as she trudged behind the pin cousin up to the desk to get their room keys.

"Next" Cana said as she looked at another sheet in her hand, "Rouge and Kagura."

"Tch" Kagura spat under her breath looking off to the side to hide the small blush on her face.

Without further protesting Kagura walked up and took the sheet of paper with a somewhat confused and flustered Rouge behind her. It was obvious to Rouge he wouldn't be with Sting since his friend had already been roomed with someone else, but he didn't expect Cana to be so incredibly… blunt with the co-ed arrangements. Everyone was either uncomfortable, irritated, and/or mildly bothered by their arrangements.

"Gray and Juvia" Cana called out as the said bluenette erupted into gleeful cheers before running up to grab the paper from Cana and dragging Gray behind her to the check in desk.

Gray was not looking forward to this vacation anymore now that he knew he was going to have to protect himself from being sexually assaulted the whole time. He thought Juvia was pretty enough, but he was not happy about how aggressive she was towards him.

"Laxus and Mira" Cana called out with a shit eating grin as she looked at the white haired she devil scowling back at her.

Laxus didn't bother retorting since Cana had made the arrangements. He simply scowled as he took the paper out of Cana's hand before silently turning to Mira with an unreadably stern expression before heading towards the check-in desk. Cana then turned to Erza with a sympathetic expression.

"Sorry girly, there were more girls than guys, so you're stuck with me."

"That's not too bad" Erza sighed, "It'll let me relax not having to worry about fending you off of me. I can't say the same about the others though. You're evil, you know that?"

Cana just gave Erza her best incriminating smirk before walking towards the desk to get their own keys. It was only morning, but they'd been traveling for a long time so everyone wanted to go check out their places and relax or catch some sleep as they started their vacation there.

* * *

"Gray-Sama look!" Juvia practically squealed, "There's only _one_ bed!"

Gray immediately felt himself get goose bumps and shiver. At least when he looked over he saw there was a sofa too. He would be sure to make that his place to sleep. Juvia came on very strong and he was sure that if they slept in the same bed he'd regret it somehow.

"I think I'l take the couch" he told Juvia as plainly as possible to hide the embarrassment and uneasiness in his voice, "A gentleman always lets the lady have the bed."

"But…" Juvia quivered before letting her eyes drop to the floor in disappointment with a sigh, "If that's what Gray-sama wants…"

Gray raised his eyebrows expecting more of a protest, but feeling a pang of guilt at the expression he was now responsible for on her face. He just set his suitcase down by the bed before plopping onto the sofa. After folding his hands behind his head and looking up at the bamboo ceiling he realized just how exhausted he was from traveling.

"I think I'm going to take a nap. Feel free to do whatever you want." Gray told Juvia before yawning and closing his eyes while smelling the salty breeze that wafted through their room.

Juvia didn't say anything but kept the sorrowful expression on her face before taking her swimsuit and coverup into the bathroom to change her clothes. After coming back out she could tell from Gray's deep and slow breaths that he was asleep. She wanted so badly to curl up next to him but knew that if she made him any more unhappy then he really wouldn't like her, or this vacation. Inwardly defeated, Juvia walked out the back door of their bungalow onto to back deck that was out in the shallow ocean water and climbed down the small wooden later to sit in the knee deep turquoise water and pout.

* * *

"Check it out!" Natsu said excitedly, "We got our own TV too!"

"I see that" Lucy said as she set her suitcase down and crawled onto the bed.

She wasn't disturbed that there was only one bed since she and Natsu shared a bed back home anyway. Even though she had taken a long nap on the flight along with Natsu she still felt groggy and rather tired. It was so hot due to the late morning sun that she didn't bother messing with the covers and just laid on top of the bed with her face in the pillows.

"You already took a nap Luce, what are you doing?" Natsu laughed, "It's day time here."

"It's nighttime here" Lucy pointed to her head grumbling into the pillow before lazily dropping her arm back down by her face.

"Well I wanna go find food" Natsu said matter of factly before she heard him shuffle out of the bungalow to leave her in peace.

* * *

"Uhm…" Levy sighed as she walked into the bungalow and saw that there was only one bed in the room.

It was still very spacious but she was more than a little worried since she was supposed to be sharing this space with someone she hardly knew at all. Outside of their time recording together at the studio she didn't spend all that much time around him. When they left the studio Levy usually spent her spare time reading books in her house or doing things with the other girls that lived there. Gajeel had various hobbies such at TV and some metal working, but he didn't usually leave his own house either. The two of them set their bags down in the middle of the room before looking sideways at each other in a long awkward silence before Gajeel broke it.

"I think I'm gunna go put my swimsuit on and check out the beach" Gajeel shrugged before pulling his Black trunks out of his bag and walking into the bathroom.

Levy just heaved a sigh of relief at how the tension was now gone since there was a closed door between them. She decided that it would be a good idea as well to put her swim suit on and maybe swim a bit since this island resort was covered in pools, waterfalls, and ocean water. After getting her bikini out of her bag she quickly threw her clothes off while scrambling to get her swimsuit on before Gajeel walked out of the bathroom. Unfortunately she was out of time and only managed to get her bikini bottom on before the door opened. Levy froze awkwardly, thankful that her back was turned to him, but also realizing he made no sound or footsteps once the door was open.

"I-I thought I'd change t-too" she studded clutching the top her chest tightly in case he could see through her back.

Gajeel crossed his arms before scoffing, "If you want to try and seduce me you could be a bit more sexy about it, shorty."

"Excuse you!" Levy felt a sudden angry fire build up inside of her as she turned around to point an angry finger at Gajeel, "If I was trying to do that you would be drooling right now!"

Her arms were off of her bare chest now fully facing Gajeel. He turned his face away covering his mouth and averting his eyes trying not to laugh at Levy who now realized what she had just done and screamed, covering her chest with one hand and punching Gajeel with the other before running into the bathroom and closing the door, mortified.

"Damn, shrimp packs a punch" Gajeel grunted to himself as he rubbed his jaw on his way out of the door.

* * *

"Look" Laxus said as he set his bag down in the room, "We both don't like this so I'm going to be clear. I have no intention of getting close to you, so you can keep any ideas of flirting you had to yourself."

Mira scowled as she then _threw_ her bag at the back of Laxus's knees, making him stumble for a second before regaining his balance as he turned around to scowl at her before she said, "You egotistical bastard. The same goes for you!"

Laxus raised a brow at this rather fiery tempered Mira he hadn't seen yet considering whenever they spent time at the studio it was rather professional and never wandered into the realm of the personal. The only times they'd had and kind of personal conversation was at the bar while she was giving him drinks. Beyond working together they were perfect strangers and Laxus couldn't stand the thought of having to share a room with someone he didn't hardly know, even if she was attractive. The white haired girl stomped out of their private hut, slamming the door behind her, leaving Laxus by himself. The disgruntled blond decided he really didn't want to stay in the room alone, and he didn't want to be here when Mira came back, so he put on his swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt he brought but left it completely unbuttoned. After throwing on his flip flops he locked the door behind him not really caring if Mira had her key or not before he went exploring.

* * *

"So uh…" Sting scratched the back of his head, "Sorry about all this."

"It's not your fault" Yukino smiled sheepishly to try and break the awkward tension.

She and sting didn't know each other well at all since whenever they were recording they were too embarrassed being unknowingly attracted to one another that they never spoke about anything. Yukino walked over to her suitcase and pulled out her swim suit before heading into the bathroom to change. Sting decided to keep his t-shirt on and change into his swim trunks as well. It only took him thirty seconds to put it on before he went to go sit on the sofa and wait for Yukino. A few minutes later she popped out of the bathroom in a stunning two piece swim suit with a small white coverup tied around her waist. Sting blushed for a minute after seeing her before turning his head away in embarrassment. Yukino noticed the way he looked at her and blushed too. She walked over to the double wooden doors by their bed and opened them so see a small pool on a little balcony hanging over the ocean. Sting had walked up behind her and was leaning against the door frame. He let out a long whistle causing Yukino to jump since she didn't realize he was that close.

"Looks nice" he said with a toothy grin, "Wanna try it out?"

Yukino looked over her shoulder as her heart rate increased while it pounded the back of her throat, "S-sure" she stammered.

Without another second to waste Sting hefted Yukino up by the waist and dove into the pool causing the girl to shout in surprise before crashing into the water.

* * *

"Nice" were the only words out of Kagura's mouth as she and Rouge walked into their bungalow.

The two of them were the second least awkward about the arrangements. Kagura and Rouge were the only two who socialized outside of their work at the studio. Kagura often sought to escape the chaos of her house and exchanged it for the chaos of Rouge's as the two of them watched TV. They didn't talk too terribly much, but they were used to each other's presence and that alone was enough to make them less uncomfortable with the arrangements. The bed however remained as a white elephant in the room for the both of them that neither sought to bring up.

"Do they get HBO out here?" Kagura yawned as she grabbed the remote to their TV off the table is was sitting on.

"I dunno" Rouge said as he plopped down next to her, "But don't you want to do something else while we're here? I mean, we have the TV at home. I even set the DVR to record Game of Thrones while we're here, but we don't have beaches and water slides at home."

Kagura shrugged before leaning over to rest her head on Rouge's shoulder. This wasn't odd behavior for the two of them. She would often fall asleep on Rouge or vice versa while the two stayed up watching shows or playing video games. Rouge just sighed under his breath. The two of them were only a little tired, but it seemed as though there was still the rest of the day to do something else other than watch TV.

"What about just checking out the small town on the island?" he asked her.

The resort was apart of a small resort town that catered to tourists. Some of the scenic stone buildings would give them eye candy to look at while they walked along the street and window shopped for souvenirs and possibly got some food along the way. Kagura wasn't one for amusement parks, but she didn't mind doing other touristy things. She sat up and thought for a moment before she nodded. Standing up to stretch her back she then turned to Rouge and offered him her hand to pull him up off the couch. After locking the door behind them, they left for town to escape the awkward confines and privacy of their room.

* * *

Cana and Erza had dumped their bags in their room and both had headed for the tiki bar at the resort. Erza was mostly just bored out of her mind while her friend was probably planning on drinking herself stupid before noon. It wasn't until someone sat next to her that she stopped zoning out staring at the bottles of liquor on the shelf behind the bar tender.

"Rum and coke please" a man's voice said to the bar tender as he laid down a $10 bill on the bar.

"Sure" came the bartender's response as he made the mans simple drink in just a few seconds.

After saying his thanks tot he bartender he began to drink the spiked soda before he turned to look at Erza, making the scarlet haired girl blush before looking away. With a smirk he kept looking at her red face without turning away.

"And your name is?" He asked with a toothy grin.

Erza took in the man's blue mildly unruly hair out of her peripheral vision as well as a red tattoo around one of his eyes. She was hesitant to engage him in a conversation since he was obviously taking his sweet time looking over her body.

"Erza" she finally mumbled without turning to look at him.

"Ah" he sighed, "I used to know an Erza. You look a lot like her."

"What?" She asked confused before turning her head to look at him face to face and she suddenly regretted it, "Jellal?"

"Erza?" The blue haired man widened his eyes for a second before he recognized her as the same Erza he had just mentioned and remained silent while they both stared at each other.

"Cana!" the drunk woman flung her arm over Erza's shoulders from where she was sitting on the other side, "Sorry I felt left out" she drunkenly cooed.

Erza just groaned under her breath as she peeled Cana's arm off of her before turning her attention back to Jellal, "What are you even doing here?"

"I'm on holiday" he smirked, "My record company is doing really well right now, and I sent one of my bands on my label here to relax, I thought I would introduce myself properly to them while relaxing myself."

"Your… record label?" Erza asked trying not to over analyze and create scenarios in her head.

Jellal gave her a devilish grin before asking, "Is it so hard to believe that I'm successful now?"

Erza just shook her head before trying to give him a fake smile to hide her now growing concerns, "Not at all. It's hard to tell where someone is going to end up when they're in a children's home at 10 years old."

"That's right, it was the last time I saw you. After that we took entrance exams for middle schools and the country paid for us to attend boarding schools so we'd live on their campus and receive financial assistance that way until we graduated and were on our own. Small world seeing you again."

Erza nodded while Cana looked at the red head with a rather wide eyed expression. Cana grew up and was put in foster care for a few years after her mother died until her father had shown up to take custody of her, but his alcoholism had basically sunken their finances and relationship and set Cana up on the road of poverty right from the beginning which is how she ended up bar tending and stripping. She didn't realize Erza went through a similar experience being tossed around in government custody.

"What have you been doing?" Jellal asked politely trying to continue the conversation.

Cana abruptly spat her drink before Erza kicked her leg harshly to make it clear she needed to keep her mouth shut, "I've been getting by."

"I see…" Jellal said with slight shock and curiosity at Cana's reaction and watched as the brunette was trying to wipe the splattered drink from her mouth off the bar with the cocktail napkin from under her glass.

"Anyways, it's been fun, but we really should probably find the others and make plans for dinner, and Cana's already drunk so I need to get her back to the room before she starts embarrassing herself and everyone else, and maybe we'll see each other again soon, it's a small world but even smaller island!" Erza rambled and panicked as she Grabbed Cana's arm and started speed walking away back towards their bungalow.

Jellal just watched as the woman walked away. There were a lot of things he didn't understand, but he knew meeting Erza here was fate. It was something he was hoping was the universe's second chance for him to make things right. He wasn't exactly good to her when they were children.

* * *

Mira was walking around by herself, fuming inwardly while walking along the boardwalk inside a rainforest that she assumed was a tourist trail. Eventually she happened to spot a familiar head of blue hair and decided to approach her friend.

"Hey levy" Mira said casually as she walked up to her friend who was leaning on the rail looking out through the trees at the ocean, "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing" she tried to smile but was still upset about what she had stupidly done earlier.

"Seems we're both getting off on the wrong foot here aren't we?" She tried to sympathetically laugh.

"Gajeel… is such an idiot." She growled while clenching her teeth, "Out of all the reactions he could've had he fucking laughed."

"What?" Mira asked confused with a raised brow.

"Nothing" Levy sighed, "I'm an idiot too I guess."

"Join the club" Mira leaned on the rail as well, "We weren't in the room for one minute and I already screamed at Laxus."

"The man's a prick" Levy commented with a blank expression, "It's not surprising he'd piss you off. I'm more surprised you were chased out rather than him."

"I saw him leave the hut too, so we both got too mad I guess."

"What did he say?" Levy asked.

Mira's face turned red with both anger in embarrassment as she rehashed the conversation they'd had in her mind. The truth is the anger stemmed from her disappoint at Laxus's complete disregard for anyone's feelings. She didn't have any ideas of flirting, at least not what she would blatant flirting, but she did want to get closer to him. She was his assistant and recording partner in the studio. She felt like she deserved a little more decency than that. It didn't help that he was incredibly handsome to her, even with the scar on his eye. If she had wanted to flirt with him then she hoped it wouldn't have been ill received but it seems it was taken the wrong way before it even happened.

"It was just a stupid argument" Mira mumbled before resting her head on her hands.

"At least I don't have to pout alone now" Levy tried to lighten the mood with some sarcasm.

Mira just smiled up at her before turning her attention back to the view Levy was enjoying. Even though the two of them were both mad and hurt it seemed like they were at least getting to relax and take in the scenery that they wouldn't have seen if they'd stayed locked up in their rooms.

* * *

Gajeel walked down the beech in his trunks trying to avoid all the disgustingly oblivious couples who kept walking while staring at each other and ended up colliding with him as he tried to walk down the beach by himself. Seeing everyone hand in hand or laying on each other in the sand, or kissing in the water wouldn't normally bother him, except for the fact that every time he saw someone doing those things he kept thinking of what it'd be like for him to do those things to Levy. Why did he suddenly start thinking of her that way. All that had happened was she'd flashed him. It wasn't even his fault, right? He did make her angry enough to do what she did without thinking, but it was an accident, so why was he suddenly unable to get the blue haired small chested shrimp out of his mind. If anything he would've thought his attraction would've been the opposite since her chest was small, her from was tiny, and she seemed to have barely any meat on her bones. While Gajeel was staring off over the horizon of the ocean he suddenly found himself walking strait into someone else.

"Watch it" He grumbled angrily before ehe looked up to see dangerously narrowed eyes and blond hair.

Laxus stood before him with his hands in his swim trunk pockets, "Who do you think you're talking to punk?" he asked Gajeel threateningly.

Gajeel just crossed his arms and scowled up at him before grunting, "Sorry. Thought you were another one of those disgusting honeymooners."

"You aren't honeymooning yet?" Laxus asked sarcastically.

"Fuck no" Gajeel scoffed rolling his eyes.

"Me either" Laxus shrugged, "Mira got pissed and stormed the hell out right after I said one sentence."

"What was that sentence?" Gajeel asked, "Because you don't realize how much of a punk ass little bitch you sound like sometimes."

"Wanna repeat that?" Laxus growled as he got dangerously close to Gajeel's face.

"You heard me" Gajeel smirked without flinching, "You piss people off al the time. What did you say?"

"I told her not to flirt with me. I have no intention of getting close to her."

"There you go."

"What?"

"If you tell a woman right off the bat you're off limits and to leave you alone that way before she even makes a single advance on you I'd be pissed too."

"I thought women liked men who play hard to get."

"Not all women like asshole, static brain."

"Oi, lay off the names pin cushion."

"Apologize"

"I'm not apologizing to you, you insulted me first."

"Not me you oversensitive lug, Mira. Apologize to her."

"What good will that do?"

"It'll do better than what you're doing now, won't it?"

Laxus sighed in defeat while rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't like thinking hard about things, especially emotional things. He was horrible with women, but even worse with apologies. He never gave them to anyone regardless of what he'd done. The many time's he'd cause Makarov trouble at home he hardly ever said sorry unless he absolutely had to.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Naruto.

* * *

Juvia was sitting in the water for a few hours before she suddenly heard a shrieking noise from the bungalow next door and she stood up in surprise until she heard laughing and more splashing coming from their pool. It was just out of sight due to the way it was angled, but Juvia could tell it was Yukino's voice. Her curiosity was peaked, but she knew that since they were laughing it wasn't anything Juvia needed to be concerned about.

"You gunna pout down there all day?" someone above her suddenly asked. Juvia looked up the ladder to see Gray looming from the porch looking down at her.

She looked away from his face feeling slight embarrassment at her childish moping in the water, but she looked back up at him before asking, "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Kind of" Gray scratched his head.

He felt refreshed from sleeping on the sofa and walking up without being suffocated by Juvia's arms and legs wrapped around him, but at the same time it left him feeling empty and guilty at having made her sad enough to sit in the ocean for what he assumed had been this whole time. He climbed down the ladder slowly before splashing into the shallow water not far from Juvia. She turned her body away from him, which made him feel even worse.

"Juvia… I'm sorry if I said something to offend you, but please don't do this. It makes me feel worse." Gray sighed defeated with his arms limp at his sides while he slumped forward and hung his head.

Juvia turned to look over her shoulder before she asked, "You feel bad?"

"I don't like being hung onto all the time Juvia, but I also don't like it when you're upset at me" He admitted while crossing his arms without looking into Juvia's eyes.

Juvia felt a small glimmer of hope spark inside her chest at his concern for her emotions. She walked towards him before she sat back down in the water by his feet. Gray stood for a moment a little confused at her before he sat down in the water next to her as well. There was a long silence between the two of them before Juvia finally spoke.

"Juvia only wants to make Gray-sama happy. Even if that means Juvia has to go away." Juvia tried to smile but it was broken.

Gray raised his brows as he turned to look at her with his eyes widening at the sigh of tears pooling at the corner of her eyes before she turned her face back away from him.

He debating on reaching out to touch her arm as he spoke, "Juvia I… I don't need you to go away. I'm just not good at handling attention. I'm sorry if you took it that way."

"Juvia is sorry she bothers you, Gray-sama." Juvia said without turning her face to look at Gray now that the tears were steadily flowing down her face.

She was so embarrassed that she didn't understand when suddenly Gray's hand tugged her arm before he pulled her over so she was sitting closer next to him with her head resting on his arm as she continued to weep. Gray wasn't sure what he was supposed to do to comfort a crying woman since he had problems dealing with women who were in their right mind. Letting Juvia cry on his arm without pushing her away should be enough to show her that he wasn't intent on completely pushing her away and alienating her.

* * *

"Oi!" Laxus and Gajeel heard a loud voice shriek at them from down the beach as he waved a hand.

"Damnit" Laxus grumbled under his breath, "He's the last person I need to deal with right now."

"I've been looking all over the island and I can't find a decent place to eat" Natsu sighed defeated as he held his growling stomach.

"Maybe you're looking in the wrong places. Unless you want to eat sand then the beach here is probably not the best place to look for a buffet." Gajeel scowled at him turning away from Laxus to face Natsu.

"Why don't we all go get something to eat, It's nearly dinner time by now right?" Natsu tried to coax them into helping him find a decent place to eat.

Laxus looked at the water proof wrist watch he'd worn and shrugged. It was only 5pm, but eating early wasn't a crime and he hadn't eaten hardly anything on the flight so his stomach was secretly rumbling as well. Laxus didn't bother answering with more than a grunt before grabbing the back of Natsu's shirt and dragging him towards the boardwalk off the beach in order to walk back to their bungalows.

"You'll need a shirt" Laxus looked over his shoulder at Gajeel.

"After you button yours" Gajeel smirked before Laxus scowled back at him.

* * *

"These are some nice buildings, right?" Rouge commented as they looked at stone houses and stores that had Ivy growing up the sides while being shaded by palm trees.

Kagura just nodded as she took her phone out a few times to take some pictures for her Instagram. Rouge chuckled a little at her. He didn't really use social media or post things. The only reason he even created a snap-chat account was to follow her on it and open all the goofy selfies she sent him while they were apart. They weren't goofy so much as her making a stern face and commenting and dissenting her friends' behavior. It usually made Rouge chuckle.

"You hungry?" She asked over her shoulder with raised brows.

Rouge scratched the back of his head thinking before shrugging, "I'm not starving, but if you want to eat I'll just order something small."

"Alright" Kagura smiled a little as she took Rouge's hand and pulled him across the street to a seafood place that was grilling all kinds of shellfish that were making her mouth water.

Rouge blushed at the sudden contact before relaxing. It felt both natural and foreign for Kagura to reach out so casually for him like that. She didn't seem to be phased at all or awkward about it. Her calm demeanor is what made him think it was so second nature for them to be like this, but part of him felt like he was reading way too much into their relationship and was overanalyzing to the point of inflicting his own anxiety about it. Kagura casually pushed the doors open before raising her brow in curiosity at the couple already sitting down.

"Want to go eat with them?" Kagura pointed at Gray and Juvia that were sitting at a table.

Rouge bit his lip in thought wondering if Gray and Juvia would mind the intrusion since they seemed to be self absorbed with each other at the moment, but before he could share his thoughts with Kagura she was already waltzing towards them and pulling another small table up next to theirs and sitting down next to Juvia.

"Oh" Juvia suddenly said as she smiled warmly at Kagura.

Juvia wasn't expecting to see any of the other in town to eat since the resort had restaurants inside it as well that were all inclusive with their bungalows so they could eat free, and close to their rooms. She was honestly hoping by coming into the tourist town that she could avoid everyone and have some alone time with Gray after their huge break through that afternoon.

"I hope you don't mind. Sting and I were sight seeing and we stopped for some dinner. When I saw you two were sitting here I thought we could sit together?"

"Well you're already sitting down so are you asking, or informing us?" Gray asked mildly annoyed as Rouge took a seat next to him with an apologetic expression.

"Both?" Kagura shrugged.

Gray rolled his eyes as he said, "Well we've already ordered, so don't expect us to wait on you to order too before we eat."

"Course not" Rouge sheepishly smiled as he picked up a cheap laminated menu.

Everything was some kind of seafood dish that either came with noodles, rice, or vegetables. It didn't take long for Rouge to pick his favorite shellfish, scallops, with rice before setting the menu down and looking at Kagura across from him. Gray noticed Rouge's spaced out expression and wanted to save him from embarrassment by crunching his toes under the table causing sting to bang his knee on the underside with a yelp and rattling the small metal rack of condiments.

"What the hell man?" Rouge growled under his breath.

Gray had managed to get both Juvia and Kagura's attention, so he opted to scowl at Rouge instead of announcing to the whole table he was staring. It was weird for Gray to see Rouge that way. Out of all of them Gray was sure that Rouge was going to be the a-sexual of the group who was never going to be interested in anything besides his music and Game of Thrones. It was disturbing to see the black haired skulking teen look at a woman the way you see them on soap operas. Gray ignored it though and decided as long as Rouge was happy then it didn't concern him too much.

* * *

"This good enough for you guys?" Gajeel asked over his shoulder as he walked inside what looked like a local barbecue place that was inside the resort.

Natsu's mouth watered as he smelled the all the beef, pork, chicken, and other delicious meets waft into his nostrils. They were being smoked, grilled, roasted, and if he wasn't mistaken some of it was fried. Before he even bothered answering Gajeel's questions Natsu ran inside leaving the other two in the dust.

"Well I guess that settles that" Laxus groaned under his breath as he casually walked with Gajeel inside the restaurant trying to spot Natsu who of course was sitting at the table nearest to the kitchen door so he could smell everything.

"You're so weird" Gajeel grunted as he took a seat across from Natsu before Laxus slid into the booth next to him.

"Well at least I'm having fun" Natsu crossed his arms before realizing he really wasn't having as much fun as he could have been since Lucy wasn't there with him.

He suddenly heaved a small sighed before resting his head on his hand, causing Gajeel and Laxus to both give him a raised brow before Laxus asked, "You having trouble too?"

"Trouble?" Natsu asked confused, "I was just thinking it'd be better if Luce were here too."

"Why isn't she?" Gajeel chimed in wondering if they'd had a fight also.

"She was tired, so I decided to let her sleep."

Gajeel rolled his eyes, of course they didn't fight. They were a perfect couple who was perfectly unaware of each other. It was the worst kind of paradox between two people he'd ever seen.

"What kind of trouble are _you_ guys in?" Natsu followed up with a toothy grin.

Laxus just scowled before looking away from the pinkette as Gajeel tapped his fingers on the table and looked at the wall behind Natsu. The pinkette laughed as he pointed at the two of them holding his stomach. It was obvious that they'd messed something up with their "roommates" and Natsu got a kick out of knowing that since he had the best roommate on the whole trip and didn't have any drama.

"You fellas ready to order?" A girl came up with a notepad before she ended up using three sheets of paper to get Natsu's food before turning to Gajeel and Laxus, who also ordered a lot, but fractionally less than Natsu.

"You're a freak of nature" Laxus commented as soon as the waitress walked away, "Who the hell eats that much?"

"I do" Natsu scowled, "Being awesome takes up a lot of energy, so I gotta replenish my fuel tank a lot."

"Or just being incredibly hyper and annoying" Gajeel smirked at the pinkette.

Natsu huffed and stuck his tongue out at Gajeel while they waited on their food.

* * *

Sting was walking back to their bungalow and asking himself how on earthland he got so lucky. Yukino was more than he ever could have hoped for. She splashed in the pool with him and then the two went to the resort's water park and spent the day frolicking in all the pools and going down almost every water slide before Sting realized he'd worn her out. He gave her a piggy back ride back to their bungalow before dropping her sleeping her body onto the couch with a light blanket to cover her before leaving to get food. He got take out from a Chinese place inside the resort and was carrying it back to the bungalow watching the sunset over the ocean as he walked along the boardwalk to get to their room. He stopped for a moment to truly admire it. Never in his life did he imagine he'd ever be able to go on a vacation like this, and now he realized that if they really did hit it bigger than what they had already, he could afford to come back. Maybe next time it would be a trip for just him and Yukino. He walked back inside the bungalow to see that the angel he'd left on the sofa was now awake and changed into sweat pants and a tank top watching the TV in their room. She smiled at him, and then smiled even more when she saw the bag of food he was holding.

"Sting!" She clapped excitedly, "You have _no_ idea how hungry I am. Those hamburgers at the water park this afternoon didn't really do it for me." She smiled sheepishly as she grabbed her stomach.

"You have a big appetite then?" Sting chuckled before setting the bag down on the coffee table and pulling the little paper folded boxes out and opening them.

Yukino playfully scowled at him before pouting, "If that's you're way of asking if I'm fat then no. But my inner fat kid does come out sometimes."

Sting laughed at her metaphor to describe her eating habits before he pulled the chopsticks out from the bottom of the bag and handed a pair to her.

* * *

Laxus walked back to his bungalow dreading whether or not Mira was there. He had no idea what he was supposed to say to her after his show of bravado that morning. He'd gone the whole day avoiding her successfully, but now that it was time to sleep he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He was debating on asking the resort if there was an extra one person room at the hotel, but he felt like Erik had spent so much money on the private bungalows if Laxus rented himself a room on the company card Erik would probably be really pissed. After standing at the door for a few minutes it suddenly swung open. Standing there was not who he was expecting. A blue haired midget glared up at him before shouldering her way past him and walking down the boardwalk back to her own room. Levy was there to spend time with Mira. They both had gone to dinner and ordered a few drinks, so she wanted to make sure Mira was going to be ok since the white haired woman seemed to have drank a little too much.

"Mira?" Laxus asked as he walked inside the dark bungalow.

He wasn't sure what he was going to find when he turned the bedside lamp on, but a half naked Mira sleeping in her bra and underwear on top of the bed were among the few things he wasn't expecting. He immediately covered his face as it turned red before he walked over to the couch and picked up a blanket and carelessly threw it over her. It felt odd for him to actually spend the effort to put it on her the right way, that and he didn't want to keep seeing her almost naked body since it was beginning to bother him in ways he didn't want to deal with just yet. He cautiously looked over his shoulder at the bed to make sure that enough of her was covered to where he thought if he accidentally saw her again getting up to use the restroom or in the morning he wouldn't get aroused again. Luckily the only thing showing was the bottom half of one of her legs and then her shoulders and up. Breathing a sigh of relief, Laxus strode over to the couch and laid on his side before dozing off.

* * *

Gajeel trudged back into the bungalow to find it completely empty. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing that the rowdy midget wasn't inside waiting to punch him since he still hadn't apologized, but he took it as a small relief since he wanted to decompress. He liked hanging out with his bandmates, but sometimes he enjoyed his time alone to center himself. Natsu was especially draining with his constant energy. After flopping onto his back on the bed he slowly felt his eyelids close, even though he was only trying to calm down he fell fast asleep. A few minutes Later Levy crept her way quietly inside the bungalow. She was careful since she didn't know if Gajeel was in there and she didn't want to alert him to her presence. However once she walked inside she saw him passed out on the bed. She didn't think she had the physical strength to at least scoot him over so she could properly sleep on her side of the bed so she just sighed to herself in frustration. Eventually she grabbed a book she brought with her out of her suitcase and crawled onto the bed before poking Gajeel's face to see just how asleep he was. When the pincushion didn't flinch at her touch she carefully lowered her head onto his stomach before propping her feet up on the pillows at the head of the bed. She figured it was the only way she could comfortably sleep with him laying on the bed like that. After reading a few chapters Levy suddenly started to smell something. It wasn't bad or gross, it smelled like man. She looked sideways up at Gajeel's sleeping face and realized that it was probably coming from him. She took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of him for her to remember. She suddenly blushed hoping he wasn't awake to see her do that. She didn't know why she suddenly felt herself softening for him. Especially since they'd just fought earlier that day and still hadn't said a word about it. Levy realized though it was mostly a one sided fight on her part. Gajeel didn't do anything on purpose to make her feel self conscious and she'd made the stupid decision to change out in the room instead of waiting to use the bathroom after Gajeel. Sighing to herself, Levy tried to keep reading her book while her eyelids got heavy and she started to drift off to sleep herself.

* * *

Natsu had made his way back to their room and tossed a to-go box on the table of food he brought back for Lucy. She was sitting on their bungalow's back deck that hovered over the ocean playing an acoustic guitar. Natsu couldn't help but listen to her strum. She wasn't singing or anything, but finger picking a toxic melody that made him stand at attention and fix his eyes on the back of her head. After the noise of him setting down his keys on the table though Lucy immediately tensed up and stopped playing to look over her shoulder.

"Oh!" she exclaimed surprised, "You're back already?"

Natsu quirked a brow with a mocking smirk before telling her, "It's almost 11PM, Luce. What are you still doing up?"

"Well… my nap lasted longer than I wanted it to, so I've only been awake for a few hours."

"That's rough" Natsu commented before pointing to the to-go box on the table, "Hungry?"

"Am I ever!" Lucy groaned holding her stomach before setting the guitar down on a nearby chair and sitting in the other before flipping the lid of the box, "You're too good" she laughed, "Steak and mac-n-cheese."

"How you don't gain weight from this I don't know. If you keep eating stuff like this I might not be able to keep giving you piggy back rides." Natsu chuckled before sitting down next to her and resting his head on his hand.

Lucy scowled at him before making a pouting face and taking a large bite of the mac-n-cheese that slowly replaced her frown with a smile as she kept eating more. Natsu had to admit that he had the biggest appetite of anyone, but Lucy seemed to have a good appetite of her own. She tended to be careful about what she ate in front of the others like how girls normally are with being self conscious and ordering salad. However for some reason she didn't hold reservations in front of him with her eating habits. Of course she chewed with her mouth closed and tried not to talk with her mouth full, but sometimes she'd get food on her face without realizing it or would take really big bites so her cheeks looked like a chipmunk hoarding nuts. Natsu noticed how she was getting some of the cheese on the side of her mouth and smirked to himself causing Lucy to look at him again with her signature scowl.

"What?" she asked covering her mouth to talk since she was still chewing food.

Natsu shook his head before licking his thumb and leaning over the swipe away the mac and cheese on the side of her mouth. Lucy turned a little red in the face as her eyes opened a little. She hadn't expected Natsu to do that, and knowing that his saliva was now on her face made her a little uneasy. Natsu saw the expression on her face and gave her a quizzical one of his own. He didn't expect her to react so stiffly to his touch.

"S-sorry" he stammered before looking away with a blush of his own and scowling.

Lucy just gave him a nervous smile before waving her hand to brush it off. She finished the rest of her food and grabbed her stomach that now had a small bump from her large meal. Sighing in contentment, she stood up from her chair and waddled over to the bed. After flopping down on the side she'd claimed as hers Natsu kicked off his shoes and hopped on his own side. He could tell in about two minutes Lucy was out cold. He waited a few minutes before turning the lights out to look at her sleeping face. He was glad that she was able to relax while they were here. He knew she deserved it after all the media attention they'd been dealing with back home. The Maldives were usually full of other affluent tourists, couples taking a once in a lifetime honeymoon, or other people who weren't really paparazzi. It would be very coincidental should anyone from the press be here, especially since cameras people brought here were for taking pictures of scenery and themselves, not necessarily other people. It would be frowned at to point a camera at someone you didn't know to take their picture, and everyone would notice. After feeling his own eyelids get heavy, Natsu turned over to turn his lamp off and go to sleep.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued…**_


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Gajeel woke the next morning and had to resist the urge to twitch involuntarily as he realized there was a weight on his stomach. After he looked down he saw tousled blue locks spread out across his torso. A book was carelessly held in one of her hands while the other was draped around him. Gajeel's face instantly turned red at the sight in front of him and he let out a giant huff to hopefully let out some of his anxiety at the situation. He slapped a hand over his face not knowing what to do. Not wanting to wake the bluenette he opted to just lay there in silence until she woke on her own. Since he'd gone to sleep before her he assumed she probably wouldn't wake for a while. After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling he focused on the book in her head. One of her fingers was holding her place in the story, but other than that it was dangerously close to closing. Gajeel carefully slid his finger onto the page and gently lifted the book from her before sliding a sheet of paper on the nightstand in as a book mark and setting the book down. After a while more he got bored and started to let his fingers play softly with her hair as he looked at her sleeping face. It wasn't much longer until she began to tire and Gajeel instantly withdrew his hand and looked away like he wasn't doing anything.

After yawning and lifting her head up from Gajeel's abdomen Levy asked, "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long" Gajeel lied with a grunt.

Levy smirked at him knowing that if he was awake enough to give that quick of a response that he's probably been awake for a while.

"Does it hurt?" Levi asked sheepishly, testing whether or not Gajeel was mad at her.

He rubbed his face where her hand had connected to it the other day and rubbed it a little. He would admit that physically there was no damage, not even a bruise, however he was frustrated and didn't know what she wanted him to say.

"Not really" he responded nonchalantly as he slowly sat up and ran a hand through his disheveled hair.

Levy watched him as she realized this was something she'd never seen before. They had always seen each other early in the morning, but she'd never seen his bed head, or the way his eyes were slightly puffy while he was still waking up, or how he slumped over instead of sitting up. She chuckled to herself as she slid out of the bed, grabbing her swimsuit on the way to the bathroom so as not to make the same mistake she did yesterday.

* * *

"Oi! oi! oi!" Gray shouted as soon as he opened his eyes and saw Juvia curled against his side with her arms and legs wrapped around him like a ball-python.

Juvia wasn't awake, but quickly twitched to partial consciousness as soon as his shouting voice reverberated off the bungalow's wooden walls. Gray realized that it might've been a mistake to wake the bluenette as she suddenly had a vice grip on his mid section that made Gray feel like she was going to snap him in half.

"Stop that!" he growled as she tried to pry her arms off his waist.

"Gray-sama!~" Juvia cooed as she started rubbing her face on the side of his chest.

"Good grief" he muttered under his breath as he heaved a sigh of defeat, "This has to be some form of molestation…"

Juvia just purred as she still wasn't fully awake as Gray silently resigned to pouting as he continued to lay on the bed. He had agreed to sleep next to Juvia under the condition that she didn't touch him, but he decided never to make that kind of deal with her again since it obviously didn't work.

* * *

Lucy felt her mind slowly falling away from the dream she was having. The dream was one of the more pleasant ones she'd had in a long time. She was walking through an endless library full of books, and every time she picked one up, she instantly had the story play through him mind in a fraction of a second. It as a dream come true as she vicariously experienced story after story and walked in the shoe of every protagonist. However it abruptly ended as she was climbing up the stairs to the next floor of undiscovered adventure. However what she awoke to was equally as pleasant as her vivid imagination. As her eye-lids slowly rose she found her face in Natsu's chest. He was still wearing the same shirt from yesterday but surprisingly he didn't stink. Lucy was becoming familiar with the smell of him. It wasn't a bad smell like body odor after exercise, it was just his _essence_. It was calming to her as she fell asleep with the aroma and it was equally as calming to wake up to it. She didn't dare move as she lifted her gaze to see his still sleeping face. Mouth open, arms strewn ungracefully around him, and snoring like a rate train, Lucy decided that if he was still in that deep of a sleep she should just leave him be. Trying not to chuckle to herself, she settled back into comfortable position.

Suddenly, Lucy felt Natsu's arms move slightly as the one she was laying on top of curled around her waist and the other was tossed carelessly across her side.

"Got em'!" was the only side thing she heard before she felt her sides tingle and an uncontrollable laugh escape her lips.

"Natsu stop!" she shrieked as tears pooled in the corners of her eyes and the pinkette continued his morning ritual of tickling the blond awake.

"Never" he laughed as he withdrew his hands from her ticklish spots and pulled her closer against his chest to take a deep whiff of sweet smelling hair.

Lucy relaxed as she felt the threat of his hands move elsewhere and hold her close. After feeling that he wasn't going to start back up again, she moved her hands from a defensive position to being wrapped around his neck as she nuzzled her face back into his chest and groaned.

"Are you a morning person yet?" Natsu asked teasingly.

Lucy just let out another huff before asking, "Are you still a tickle monster?"

Natsu smirked to himself before slowly unraveling himself from her and sitting up to stretch his arms above his head, "Sometimes."

Lucy rolled her eyes before rolling over on her other side to face away from the boy. She hugged one of the many pillows that was on their bed.

"We can't stay in here all day Luce" Natsu finally yawned as he slid off of the bed and walked over to open the curtains that were hanging over the glass doors that went onto their back patio area.

Lucy just groaned again, "Why not?"

"You lay in bed at home, how often do you have a place like this to go explore?" Natsu stated with a toothy grin as he gazed out at the ocean in their backyard.

"Five more minutes" Lucy grunted before retreating back under her blankets.

* * *

"How much you wanna bet all those fuckers are still inside their huts?" Cana smirked as she and Erza took a mid morning walk along the beach.

"I don't know how you're still not drunk after everything you drank yesterday" Erza scoffed with her arms crossed.

Cana just grinned as she held up her mimosa she was already sipping on. The red head roller her eyes at her alcoholic friend, unaware of where she was going, before bumping into someone. She immediately recoiled and fell into the sand on her butt with an 'oof!'

"Are you ok?" a man asked as Erza squinted past the sunlight to see short blue hair hanging from a very well chiseled face.

It didn't take long for her to realize that it was Jellal and that she had once again embarrassed herself. She didn't think that she was going to run into him again so soon, and she wasn't prepared for it either. The way she left him last time was rather abrupt and unorthodox. To say she was frazzled was an understatement.

"I... uh... beach... yesterday..."

"It's ok" Jellal waved his hand cutting her off mid ramble, "I understand that I caught you by surprise and that your friend here was... a little indisposed. It's no big deal."

Erza heaved a sigh of relief as she let her shoulders slump from the weight being lifted off of them. It didn't take long though for the tension to return as Cana then shoved her back into Jellal after helping her up.

"Go get em' tiger!" she shouted over her shoulder as she walked away back down the beach toward what Erza assumed would be a bar of some kind.

Jellal scratched the back of his head after grabbing onto Erza's arm to steady her from falling again, but realizing that the physical touch was embarrassing to both of them he withdrew his hand.

"I'm sorry..." he muttered as his cheeks were tinted slightly red.

Erza just waved her hand, speachless, indicating that everything was fine even though her brain was on fire and she had no idea what she was doing, or what Cana possible could've been thinking shoving her into him.

"Seeing that your friend ditched you and all... do you wana take a walk?" Jellal asked trying to regain his composure.

Erza simply nodded as she readjusted her footing in the sand to walk in-stride with the blue headed man she had mysteriously come to admire in a short period of time.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing alone?" came a voice that didn't surprise Cana.

Levy was charging up behind her looking around for long red hair that would usually accompany the drunk brunette.

"No big deal" Cana slurred as she laughed slightly intoxicated, "I just played love Doctor. That's all."

"Oh God" Levy sighed as she slapped her face before looking over her shoulder despondently at Gajeel, "Where did you leave her?"

"In his arms" Cana snickered as she downed the last of what was in her glass, "I walked away and that was that."

"That's not specific at all!" Levy shouted in disbelief and mild annoyance, "I know we're on vacation, but why would you ditch her with a stranger?!"

"Oh-ho-ho!" She laughed, "He is no stranger!"

"What are you talking about?" Gajeel finally chimed in sounding almost as annoyed as Levy.

Cana smirked before answering the two, "Did you know that the owner of the record label you guys are signed with is here? To top it off that same man is Erza's childhood friend from a children's home. That's who I left here with."

Having heard a reasonable explanation, Levy was slightly less worried, but her annoyance persisted at Cana's match-making antics. It was bad enough that all the bungalow's were co-ed except for her and Erza's arrangement. However if Cana kept trying to "mix things up" she might very well kick Erza out and try and put her in Jellal's room. Gajeel pinched the skin between his eyes before walking away from both of the girls to find a nearby restroom. He didn't feel too terribly well and the screeching of the two women wasn't making his headache any better.

* * *

Rouge woke up the next day probably sometime around noon to find dark tresses resting on his shoulder. He looked over at the TV and realized they'd left it on all night, except Netflix was paused with a message asking if he was still watching, obviously not. He felt his phone vibrating and quickly dug for it in the couch cushions trying not to wake Kagura. Unfortunately she started to stir and rub her eyes as soon as Rouge found the phone and unlocked the screen to see that he had more than 10 missed calls from Sting as well as several text messages from the erratic blond.

 _Help!_

Was the first text message.

 _I don't want to move and wake her up, but I can't sleep like this!_

Then there was a cornucopia of emoji's that Rouge could only guess at the meaning before he saw the last message.

 _Fuck_

Rouge just scowled at his phone and tried calling Sting while Kagura groggily got up from the sofa to go dig through her suitcase for some clothes to wear that day. All Rouge managed to get from Sting's phone was his answering machine. It didn't even ring. Sighing in defeat, he put the phone on the end table next to the couch and joined Kagura looking for clothes to wear for the day and took turns to change in the bathroom before they headed out for the day.

* * *

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckkkkkkk" Sting groaned under his breath.

He'd made a mistake, a _huge_ mistake. He knew that it wasn't a mistake to him, but he felt like it wasn't the best decision for the both of them. He tried to crawl out of the bed without jiggling the mattress so that a naked Yukino wouldn't wake up and see his equally naked self. Sting slapped a hand over his face as he grabbed a random assortment of clothes from his suitcase and bolted into the bathroom as fast as lightning. Yukino didn't stir at all as he tried to quietly slide the door shut.

The whole night flashed in Sting's mind as he realized that smuggling a giant bottle of vodka into the resort might not've been the best idea. He got completely smashed last night. He and Yukino had originally fallen asleep on the couch with her head in his lap, which was uncomfortable in multiple ways, but he was texting Rouge, hoping his friend would come knock on their door and wake Yukino up so Sting could blame him instead of moving and waking her up himself. Instead she woke up on her own and eventually found his bottle of vodka while he was getting ready to go to bed and when he came back into the room he found her rather boisterous and intoxicated, and against his better judgement he let her convince him to join her. After getting smashed Sting decided to text Rouge one last time to see if he was awake and sent him the word "Fuck" and hoped that somehow Rouge would be able to translate his drunk code word. After they both were intoxicated they started playing question games and one thing led to another and both of them had admitted they were attracted to the other and of course when alcohol is involved things escalate way too quickly. Next thing he knew they were both naked and on top of one another. When it was all over they were both so dizzy and tired they passed out naked under the blankets.

"She's going to hate me" Sting immediately thought to himself as he slammed his palms down on the counter then instantly flinched and retracted his hands realizing what a loud sound it made.

He decided that the best course of action would be to go bother Rouge and avoid Yukino until he knew what he wanted to say. This was a situation that he was hoping he wouldn't find himself in during this vacation, but Cana's room arrangements were like something out of Dante's inferno and his bungalow was the 2nd circle of hell.

After finishing shaving his face Sting took a peak out into the bungalow and saw Yukino laying on her side with her back to him. Her sides were slowly rising and falling indicating she was still sound asleep. Sting took the opportunity to grab his room key and phone and bolt out of the front door as he ran down to Rouge's.

* * *

"What do you think we'll do today?" Kagura asked as she plopped down on the couch in her one piece swim suit with shorts.

Rouge was pulling a t-shirt to wear with his swim trunks as he threw some of his used clothes back in his suitcase and zipped it closed, "I'm not sure. Whatever we want to I guess."

"I thought we had a meeting with the owner of the record company though?"

"What?" Rouge asked confused.

"I thought that Gray had mentioned something about it yesterday when he and Juvia came and ate with us at that seafood place?"

Rouge shrugged, "I wasn't really listening I guess."

Kagura rolled her eyes, "What were you doing then?"

"Looking at you" Rouge said nonchalantly.

Kagura blushed a little before chiding him and calling him an imbecile. Not five minutes later there was a loud clattering noise at the front door from someone vigorously knocking on it.

"ughhhhhh" Kagura groaned already knowing who would be knocking that obnoxiously on Rouge's door, "are you really going to let him in?" She asked bitterly.

"Do you not like him?" Rouge asked curiously, "He is my friend y'know."

"I like him" Kagura sighed, "In small doses."

Rouge laughed before he opened the door and let the frantic blond into bungalow. After crashing through the doorway he stood in the entry way with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath as he erratically explained last night's events.

"Yukino… found my vodka… and I… we… god I'm an idiot…" he said in-between pants not realizing the now standing Kagura quickly making her way over to him.

Without a moment's hesitation she grabbed Sting's shirt collar and pulled him back up so he was standing strait up as she got an inch from his face and dangerously asked, "What did you do to Yukino?"

"I didn't mean it!" Sting tried to defend himself in his still flustered state of mind.

"That's the problem" Kagura said, "You men don't mean anything you say" before letting go of his shirt collar and grabbing the door knob.

"You don't mean that, do you?" Rouge asked skeptically but also a little hurt.

Kagura looked sideways at him without verbally answering his question as she walked out of the front of their bungalow and down to Sting and Yukino's to see how her silver haired friend was faring.

"What the hell man!" Rouge yelled.

Rouge was usually the hardest person in their group to rattle and he caught himself yelling at his best friend. By far this was one of the most dramatic thing to happen to them since their high school days.

"You couldn't have exercised more restraint?!" Rouge asked his friend bitterly as he crossed his arms to keep from strangling him.

"I tried to text you but you didn't answer!" Sting whined as he covered his face with his hands.

Rouge gripped his arms tighter, clinching his jaw as he answered "I can't always be there for you to make your decisions Sting! I'm not your permanent babysitter! We're fucking adults now! You have to be able to manage your own problems and work through your own social emergencies. I can't be there for you 24/7. I can't always save you from yourself!"

Sting tried to fight the tears pooling in the corner of his eyes while making his way over to the sofa and sitting down while resting his face in his hands trying to take deep breaths. Rouge joined him in silence as the two quietly contemplated the place they'd found themselves in.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

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	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"8 o'clock?" Levy asked skeptically looking at a text message that was sent to her phone from Erik, "doesn't that seem just a little late to be having a meeting to you?" she asked Gajeel who was sitting next to her by the side of a pool.

"Maybe" he grunted, "But we are on vacation, so who cares when he schedules it."

"My circadian rhythm cares" Levy scowled, "I'm not a night owl like the rest of you party animals."

"You were pulling long hours at the bar before" Gajeel shrugged.

Levy rolled her eyes, "Does that mean I enjoyed it? No."

Gajeel chuckled as he replied, "I'm starting to think you don't like any kind of work."

Levy smirked before answering, "I'm more of a psychological worker than labor."

Gajeel stood from his lounge chair as he squatted next to Levy's and pulled the book down from her face with one of his fingers, "So I noticed. All of these books are gunna make your brain rot y'know that?"

Levy scoffed before grumbling, "Not as much as all your loud music."

Gajeel chuckled before he forced the book out of her hand onto a nearby table and flung the fiery midget over his shoulder walking towards the pool.

"A swim will do you good shrimp. It'll help wash all that word pollution out of your brain from reading too much."

"Gajeel!" Levy shrieked as she beat on his back, "You can't do this to me!"

"I can" he smirked, "and I will."

Levy let out one last short chirping scream before Gajeel jumped into what felt like frigid water. After shaking for a few moments due to the temperature change, Levy relaxed. But soon she started trying to use her body weight to pull Gajeel sideways or under the water. It looked like a little tug boat trying to pull the statue of liberty down.

"Calm down. It wasn't that bad." Gajeel grunted at her in mild annoyance.

However telling her to calm down had about as much effectiveness as baptizing a cat. Gajeel eventually grabbed her arms to keep her from splashing him, but when she continued thrashing around Gajeel resorted to pulling her against his chest as he dipped his head down to kiss her right on the lips. Right after doing so, Gajeel realized what an impulsive decision it was to do that. Levy didn't seem to struggle anymore though, her thrashing and splashing had stopped. After breaking apart, Gajeel saw the dumbstruck look on her face and had to contain a smirk. He'd kissed her senseless. However once her senses returned Levy let out one more loud, ferocious growl before storming out of the pool to go lay back on her lounge chair. Unable to pick up her book due to her sopping wet hands, Levy opted to close her eyes and rest, all that fighting had made her a bit tired.

* * *

"Luce!" Natsu groaned, "It's been like, twenty minutes!"

"Ok" Lucy grumbled as she squirmed beneath the blankets, "Thanks for letting me know."

Natsu crossed his arms standing next to the bed as he scowled down at her. He didn't understand why she needed sixteen hours of sleep every day. No human hibernated that much. He guessed it was to make up for all those nights where she only got four hours of sleep if any at all. He guessed sleep could feel like an amazing luxury when you never get any.

"Get up _now_ " Natsu pushed down on her form on top of the blankets like an impatient puppy.

His tone held a bit of finality that was normally absent with his carefree attitude. He was adamant about him and Lucy not wasting this vacation being couch potatoes, or in this case bed potatoes.

"Fine!" Lucy growled as she rose from the grave of blankets with a look that was darker than death.

Natsu slightly cringed before watching her crawl off the bed and grab her bathing suit out of her suitcase then marched into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

"Yeesh!" Natsu hissed as he cringed from the reverberating wood.

* * *

"He hates me!" Yukino sobbed into her hands wrapped in nothing but the bed sheets.

Kagura was sitting there beside her softly petting her hair as the silver haired girl cried onto her shoulder. Kagura had swiped the room key from Sting after she'd grabbed his shirt collar and went over to their bungalow to check on Yukino and found her a snotty sobbing mess in the bed at the realization that she'd woken up alone. Yukino assumed that Sting had hated her, but Kagura knew differently. Sting was beside himself with worry that he'd hurt her, his feelings were quite the opposite of why Yukino was crying. However no matter of coaxing was going to make Yukino believe that right now. Kagura was convinced that the girl was just gunna have to cry it out and then once she'd calmed down Kagura would try and rationalize with her. After the silver haired girl had passed out, Kagura carefully stood up from the bed and walked into the bathroom to get a cold wash cloth. It was almost a given that after all the crying Yukino had done that her eyes would be swollen. After laying the cold cloth over the weeping girl's sleeping eyes, Kagura got up to go get a glass of water and see if she could find some ibuprofen. Much to her relief there was a small bottle in Sting's suitcase.

"No doubt because of his drinking habit" Kagura grumbled under her breath. She had assumed that he used them or hangovers after binge drinking.

Once Kagura had set the water and pills down on the nightstand closest to Yukino, the dark haired girl decided to lay on the bed next to Yukino and fold her hands behind her head and just relax. She was sure that this shit storm was far from over with, so there was no point laying there angry when there was nothing more she was able to do at that point in time.

* * *

"She's never going to forgive me" Sting was sobbing into his hands.

Rouge was rather perturbed at the sight of his blond friend's tears. He hadn't seen Sting this upset since they'd ended up back in foster care together again. They were adopted by two older men that were both widowers and lived together as friends, but when those old men both died within a week of each other, and no living relatives to take custody of the boys, the state took them back to the welfare home where they then grew up through high school. When the old men died Sting busted out of the group home and took Rouge with him. They had said Sting couldn't go to the memorial service for the two men, but after flipping them the bird he ran as fast as he could with Rouge out of window to the funeral home. No one sent them back that day to the welfare house. They even let Sting say a few words about the two men and what they had done for him and Rouge. The boys were only 13, but they had spent eight years of their lives with the two men. Those two men were the first family they ever had. After the service was over and they delivered the ashes to the mausoleum, the boys came back to the home. The resident advisor gave them both a slap on the hand for what they did, but given the circumstances she only lectured them and didn't give them any other form of punishment.

After snapping back to reality Rouge saw Sting's swollen eyes looking up at him, crying out for help. Rouge was unsure of what advice he was supposed to give Sting. The two of them were so different sometimes he wondered how they even got along with each other. Rouge was the quiet type who liked to binge watch Netflix, Sting liked to party and occasionally make poor decisions like drinking too much.

"All I can tell you" Rouge sighed, "Is that you have to talk to her at some point. You can't avoid her the rest of this trip and then try and sneak onto the jet to get home. She also works with you, so you are going to see her face at some point, like it or not."

"How am I supposed to face her?!" He moaned before slapping his hands back over his face in shame.

"With honesty" Rouge told him, "Apologize, because you are sorry. But make sure she knows that you do care about her as more than a friend, so while you're sorry it happened that way, it doesn't mean that you didn't want it to happen at all."

Sting pinched the bridge of his nose in thought as he tried to calm himself back down. He had no idea the words he was supposed to say. He wasn't nearly as articulate as Rouge when it came to saying what he wanted, or conveying his feelings. Usually his actions spoke for him, but in this instance he knew it didn't do his intentions justice.

* * *

"Natsu" Lucy called out Natsu's name to try and get his attention, "Did you get the text?"

"Hm?" he asked as he turned around, "You mean the one about the dinner meeting tonight at 8?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Well considering I was up about several hours before you, yes."

Lucy scowled and slapped his arm before asking, "Do you know anything about the president of the record company?"

"No" Natsu shrugged, "Never met him."

"Then how did you get a contract?!" Lucy asked confused.

Natsu smirked then answered, "Erik. Duh."

Lucy just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms before stomping towards the resort behind her sarcastic pink haired mess. The two of them ended up at the same pool as Levy and Gajeel. Lucy scurried over to the area Levy was sitting and immediately set her stuff down. Levy heard the slight noise of shuffling objects and saw Lucy standing there next to her. She smiled and waved saying "howdy" as she lifted her head up squinting to minimize the sunlight burning her eyes.

"How long you been here?" Lucy asked looking at the clock on her phone.

Levy shrugged then said "A few hours, give or take. Since it's vacation I'm trying not to keep track of the time."

"I wish I had that luxury" Lucy sighed, "Natsu decided that I'd slept in long enough and it was 'time' for me to get up."

Levy chuckled before she said, "At least he didn't throw you in the pool."

"Yet. Just you wait for it- wait... Gajeel threw you in the pool?" Lucy asked confused and slightly angry at the audacity of that man.

Levy laughed then said, "Well, he threw me over his shoulder and forced me to jump in with him, but I'm over it. I'm pretty sure he thinks I want to kill him, so I'll play it out a little while longer to see if he apologizes."

"You're a cruel woman" Lucy smirked.

Levy just smiled with the peace sign before going back to sunbathing. Lucy took out a bottle of sunscreen and started applying it to her arms, legs, belly, and chest. Then stopped and looked over at levy with a sheepish smile.

"Levy can you put some on my back?"

Levy looked up and saw Lucy holding the bottle of sunscreen then answered, "Yea sure. Oh! I probably should put some more on too, can you get my back too?"

"Of course!"

The two girls laughed and Natsu watched in envy as Levy was applying sunscreen to Lucy's back. He crossed his arms, unaware of the slight scowl on his face.

"Bet you wish it was you, don't you flame brain?" Gajeel asked jeeringly as he swam up to the edge of the pool close to where Natsu was standing, "Too bad you can rub all over her, or do you?"

Natsu tried to ignore Gajeel but the last comment sent him a little over the edge and he immediately turn around to cannonball right onto Gajeel's head to knock him under the water. Unfortunately it also splashed Lucy and Levy who were sitting nearby. With a small screech the two girls scowled to express their displeasure in getting wet right after applying sunscreen.

Natsu sheepishly smiled back at them scratching the back of his head as he said, "Sorry ladies."

Right after he finished his apology though, Gajeel emerged from the depths of the water he'd been knocked down into and came after Natsu hollering, "What the hell salamander?!"

The two boys proceeded to wrestle and rough house in the water until one of the lifeguards saw it after trying to locate the source of all the yelling and loudly blew their whistle at the two miscreants. The two of them apparently had to sit out of the water for half an hour as a punishment for causing such a ruckus in the pool. Natsu didn't feel like going and sitting in one of the chairs to work on a tan, so he sat on the edge of the pool with his lower legs in the water. The lifeguard eyed him carefully as to be sure he wasn't going to just slip back into the water. Gajeel however decided that he'd had enough of the water and hopped out of the pool and walked strait over to his and Levy's chairs. He shook his head back and forth to try and get some of the water out of his hair like a dog, which then sprinkled all over Levy and Lucy who both scowled at him before laying back down grumbling insults under their breath.

"You sure you put enough sunscreen on shrimp?" Gajeel asked as he noticed the reddening hue of Levy's skin.

"Of course I did. Why?"

Instead of answering Gajeel simply placed the tip of his pointed finger onto Levy's thigh, causing her to hiss in pain before swatting at his hand, causing her sunburned arm to slap against his, making her actually cry out in pain. After hearing Levy gasp and shout in pain Lucy sat up and saw what Gajeel was talking about. She was in fact, a rock lobster.

"Can you stand?" Gajeel asked sympathetically trying to offer her his hand.

Levy gripped it with minimal discomfort and stood, but when she tried to walk her body screamed in searing pain. It was like she was rolling in hot coals. Gajeel just shook his head as he grabbed her towel off the chair and draped it over her shoulders. Grabbing her book off the table along with her tote bag, Gajeel then turned around and scooped Levy up bridal style as carefully as possible to minimize the pain. Levy still hissed a little but nodded that she understood the intent.

"I think she's had enough fun in the sun" Gajeel smirked before he sang "rock lobsterrrr!"

Levy to groaned and rolled her eyes. Lucy slightly chuckled at the joke and waved them both off with a farewell before returning to her own sunbathing. After a few more minutes Lucy became paranoid about whether or not she was going to burn her skin.

"We should probably head back" Lucy sheepishly smiled, "I don't want to burn like Levy."

"You don't burn" Natsu smiled mischievously, "You just get paler."

"Natsu!" Lucy screeched before slapping his arm and stomping off to gather her things from around her lounge chair.

"Awwww Luce I'm sorry" Natsu tried to apologize without laughing, "What if we just go do something else inside? I don't want to go back to the bungalow yet."

"Well… there is a museum in the town outside of the resort that we could go to" Lucy suggested as she tapped her chin continuing to think of ideas.

"Boooooring" Natsu yawned as he folded her hands behind his heads with a dull look in his eyes as he watched Lucy come up with more bad ideas.

"Then I'm headed back to the bungalow" she waved.

"No you're _not_!" Natsu grunted as he grabbed her arm, "Don't waste this vacation! Have you ever even gone on vacation before?" Natsu asked.

"Plenty" Lucy chided him over his shoulder, "Back when I had my family."

Natsu couldn't tell if the heat radiating off of the skin he'd grabbed was from Lucy laying in the sun or from the hot temper that was slowly boiling below her surface. He let go of her arm then asked, "What if we go mini golfing instead?"

Lucy wasn't entirely sure about the idea, but she shrugged off her rising outburst and swallowed some of her anger as she nodded and started following Natsu toward's one of the resort's large buildings. As soon as they got inside she could see the immaculateness of the mini golf course and wondered if there were a classic 18 holes or if there were more.

"How many?" The attendant asked with an uninterested expression while chewing her gum as she stared at the two of them.

"Two" Natsu sheepishly smiled reaching for her wallet.

The attendant waved her hands before rolling her eyes telling them, "It's part of the resort."

Natsu raised his brows in pleasant surprise as he took the two mini golf balls that were neon blue and red. They went around the side to pick the golf clubs that they wanted that were the right size before heading to the beginning to tee off.

"Ready to lose?" Natsu asked competitively.

Lucy just rolled her eyes as she gesture for Natsu to put first. The cocky pink haired elitist set his golf ball on in the dent situated int he middle of the pad and then took a swing only to have the golfball fly off a rock and land several feet away from the hole at the end of the course. Lucy didn't say anything as she lined her golf ball on the tee to the right and observed the length and layout of the course for a few minutes before carefully striking the ball and sinking it on her first try. Stifling a laugh she looked over at Natsu who was visibly agitated at her.

"This is so fun" she cooed with the same shit eating grin on her face as they walked towards the second hole after Natsu swung four more times before sinking his own.

* * *

"Well this is awkward" Lucy commented as she walked into the karaoke building as she double checked the address on her phone that Erik had sent her.

They had been told earlier that day that they were going to have a meeting with the president of the record company but none of them knew who that was or what was happening. However after Lucy opened the door she was faced with a whole new level of awkward. Sting, Rouge, Yukino, Kagura, Laxus and Mirajane were all seated oddly in a way that made it seem like there was tangible tension. Natsu even picked up on it despite how dense he is and looked at Lucy for direction.

"Hi" Lucy tried to say with a smile in hopes she was just imaging things.

Laxus grunted at her while Mirajane tried to fake a good smile for her. Kagura harrumphed and crossed her arms while Yukino looked ready to sob her life story. Rouge didn't react at all and Sting looked away from her.

"Wow guys, was today that fun for all of you?" she asked rhetorically still trying to loosen the tension.

"Apparently all the fun was last night" Kagura spat while shooting daggers at Sting with her eyes before looking back at Yukino trying to soften her expression.

Lucy took a moment to piece two and two together from Kagura's vehement words and everyone's body language. She opened her eyes wide as she looked back and forth between Yukino and Sting before looking at Natsu with her own questioning expression. Natsu's face was blood red as his mouth was covered. It was almost as if Natsu was embarrassed for Sting.

"What in the hell?!…" Gajeel yelled as he stormed into the karaoke room grabbing Sting by his shirt and jerking him around, "What the hell were you thinking?! I knew you had a drinking problem, but really?!"

Sting tried to slap Gajeel's hand away and grumbled, "It's not that simple."

"How simple is self control?" Gajeel glowered at the blond.

Sting narrowed his eyes as he pierced Gajeel with his response, "I don't know, how about I ask your rehab case worker?"

"Cool it" Laxus grunted from the other side of the room.

Tensions weren't just tangible anymore but threatened to explode with Gajeel's sudden intrusion. Levy soon came running into the room behind him as she beat on his back with her tiny fists shouting how what she told him was private information and didn't need to be exposed like that. However once Levy took a look around the room it was obvious there was nothing private about it anymore.

"Where's cakes and kegs?" Gajeel asked sarcastically as he scanned the room for Erza and Cana, knowing they might be able to help the situation even if just a little.

After feeling persecuted enough Sting shouted and stood to go outside of the karaoke room and ran down the hall out of sight. Lucy felt for him and knew that he wasn't a horrible person despite how the current situation made him look. Laxus was getting up to go after him when Lucy was surprised to see Natsu put a hand on Laxus's arm.

"Let me" Natsu looked down at the ground with his bangs covered his eyes, "I think I understand how he feels right now."

For the first time Lucy saw Laxus nod at Natsu instead of arguing with him. Laxus sat back down next to Mira, giving her a sideways glance as he resettled himself in the leather cushions.

"You" Lucy growled at Yukino as she stomped over and grabbed the silver haired girl by the wrist and pulled her up to her feet, "We're gunna have a little talk."

"Hey!" Kagura instantly stood up like Yukino's watch dog as she grabbed Lucy's hand to try and pry her fingers off of Yukino, "You can't just treat her like that!"

"But it's ok for you to demoralize Rouge and make him feel like less of a mean as well as demonize every single male you associate with?" Lucy asked with venom in her voice.

"You don't know what I said to Rouge-"

"I don't have to" Lucy cut her off, "The look on his face and the fact you guys are sitting more than two feet apart tells me everything I need to know. You baby Yukino too much and it's exactly why she feels like this, cries like this, and never grows up."

Kagura scowled at Lucy for another minute before slowly releasing her vice grip. Once Kagura had let go Lucy leaded the sniffling Yukino out of the karaoke room and down the opposite hallway from Sting. Natsu watched in slight surprise at Lucy's aggressiveness, but shook it off as he realized he had to track down Sting. It wasn't very hard to spot his blond hair down the end of the hallway standing outside on a balcony.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

 **Secondary Disclaimer:** The conversations at the beginning of this chapter might hold highly sensitive and triggering content for sexual assault survivors. I do not in anyway condone sex while under the influence of any type of drugs, including alcohol. The basis of the conversation is they are both consenting adults, and there was a momentary lapse in judgement where their emotions ruled them instead of logic. I do not look at this as sexual assault since it wasn't "unwanted" it was just very bad timing and things escalated quickly. Please do not interpret these two conversations between the boys and the girls as condoning sex while being incoherently drunk. And for those who are SA survivors, there are plenty of resources to help with any PTRS (Post Traumatic Rape Syndrome, yes that is a thing). I highly encourage you to seek help!

* * *

Natsu carefully approached Sting who was standing out on the balcony. His knuckles were white from how hard he was gripping the metal railing.

"Hey man" Natsu tried to speak to him casually, but could visibly see Sting jolt in surprise at the sound of his voice, "Whatcha doin out here alone?"

Sting looked at Natsu wondering if he was being mocked since it was obvious why he was outside. He couldn't stand being around Yukino after what he'd done. He felt so guilty over it that he didn't ever even ask Yukino how she'd felt about it.

"Did you talk to her?" Natsu added after a few moments of silence from Sting.

The blond shook his head slowly staring down at his hands in front of him. He already knew where this was going.

"If you don't ask you won't know" Natsu said sighed.

"It was wrong" Sting said as he squinted trying to hold back tears.

Natsu shrugged, "I don't think that what happened was the best way to go about it. But you two were consenting adults. The way I see it, she thinks you regret it, and she's upset that you might not like her now."

Sting raised his brows at Natsu, "You mean... she likes me?"

"She hasn't pressed charges against you, she's just really frikkin sad. God sometimes you're worse than me with women."

"So you admit you're dating Lucy" Sting tried to give Natsu his best smirk.

"No" Natsu quickly cut him off, "I just don't understand women that well is all. But even I can tell how Yukino feels about the situation."

* * *

"Yukino" Lucy said in a stern voice after they'd found a quiet hallway away from the others, "You _cannot_ just sulk!"

"But..." Yukino whimpered.

"But what? What's the worst that could happen? You two already did the deed. I think that's evidence enough that there's something between you two. Would I repeat that little incident? No. But It's obvious to us that you like him, this just happened in the completely wrong order and in the worst way."

"But he left before I even woke up" she started blubbering trying to wipe the tears from her eyes before they fell down her face.

Lucy slapped her face before growling, "He did that because he was scared! He was afraid you'd be mad at him for what he'd done! He felt ashamed! It wasn't because he didn't like you. It was because he liked you so much that he was afraid he had hurt you."

Yukino looked up with a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. She hadn't thought about it since she was so focused on the fact that Sting was avoiding her making her feel like her suspicions were confirmed and he didn't want anything to do with her anymore. She looked to her bottom right taking a moment to think it over, wondering if there was validity to Lucy's words. Eventually she nodded in agreement and decided to follow Lucy back down the hall towards the karaoke room. However the two girls caught sight of the boys talking out on the balcony and Lucy gesture with her head towards them as she slowly started walking down the corridor towards them.

"ahem" Lucy fake coughed and interrupted them.

Natsu looked over his shoulder with both brows raised before giving Sting a light slap on his arm making the blond look at well. At the sight of Yukino he quickly looked at Natsu who jerked his head in her direction before walking over to Lucy and taking her arm to guide her back to the karaoke room.

"Are you sure we can leave them alone?" Lucy asked skeptically after the two of them were out of earshot.

Natsu smirked before adding, "I think they know what to do at this point. They might not be adults, but they aren't kids either."

Lucy took one last worried glance over her shoulder before they rounded the corner leaving Sting and Yukino alone to stand in awkward silence. Several minutes passed before Yukino finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry!" She almost shouted as she bowed at a low angle towards Sting to indicate her sincerity.

Sting's eyes went wide as his brows raised in question over what Yukino had to be sorry about. He was the one who had instigated this mess in the first place with the alcohol and getting black out drunk.

"No" Sting said as his eyes softened a bit, "I'm sorry. I shouln't have run away. I should've been there when you woke up, to see if you were mad at me first."

Yukino looked up with a slightly nervous expression as she quietly asked, "What would you have said… if you were there when I woke up?"

Sting smirked before answering, "Good morning gorgeous."

Yukino's eyes went a little wide wondering if maybe Sting did feel anything for her, she slowly tiptoed towards him and closed the three foot gap between them that narrowed down to centimeters before he slowly turned his head and leaned down into hers. She melted against his mouth as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You… think I'm gorgeous?" Yukino asked with her breath against Sting's face.

The blond gave Yukino a slight squeeze before he answered, "I think you're perfect."

Yukino felt so happy she could cry, in fact she wasn't sure if she was or wasn't still crying at this point. If she was, it wasn't the same type of tears as earlier. She melted into Sting's arms until they heard a loud cough and saw Natsu standing there with a neutral expression that clearly stated he wasn't into watching them swap spit.

"Hate to be a party pooper but everyone's inside and you're making Lucy nervous taking your sweet time making out." He said rather apathetically before yawning and turning around to walk back towards the room.

Sting sheepishly smiled and chuckled at Yukino as she did the same with her face being tomato red.

"There they are!" Jellal devilishly smiled as Natsu, Yukino, and Sting all shuffled into the room, "I heard there was a little bit of drama."

"A little?" Kagura asked still angry over the whole incident.

"Well… it doesn't matter" Rouge looked over at Sting and Yukino who were now sitting together giving off all kinds of disgusting lovey-dovey vibes, "It looks like it got fixed."

"Good!" Jellal chimed in as he stood up so he could stand in front of everyone.

"Sorry!" Someone yelled as they burst into the room.

It was Erza, followed by a drunk Cana that she was holding onto by the arm like an unruly child, "It was hard getting Cana away from… the bar…" she slowed her speech as her eyes met Jellal's.

After all the time they'd spent together she had failed to mention that she was part of the band that was staying here who was supposed to be meeting with the president. She had pieced together the situation, but she was hoping he didn't, and she knew this moment would eventually come but it didn't make her dread it any less.

"Erza?" Jellal asked a little confused but no hint of anger in his voice.

The red head just sheepishly grinned at him as she tiptoed into the room like she was walking on egg shells and threw Cana down into one of the seats as she sat close by.

"Well then" Jellal tried to continue like he hadn't just been blind sided all day and was now just finding out about it, "I'm the president of your record label company."

"Wow" Gajeel grunted while clapping sarcastically.

Levy elbowed him hard in the ribs while hissing in a low tone, "he signs your paycheck and mine! Show some respect!"

Gajeel simply pouted as he looked to the side in disgust away from Levy.

"I try to keep things casual" he make a broken smile at Gajeel indicating his slight annoyance, "You can just call me Jellal, and if you ever need anything and can't reach Erik you're always welcome to try and reach me."

Everyone just shrugged or nodded and Jellal realized that there was really no grabbing their attention so he then said, "Tonight I called you here for some team building… karaoke!"

"How is public humiliation team building?" Laxus asked with a stern scowl not wanting any part in this.

"I'll show you" he smiled as he punched some numbers in on a remote control and Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney started playing as words popped up on the giant flatscreen TVs against the walls.

"Nononononononono" Rouge stammered as he clutched his head, "God i haven't heard this since I was in fifth grade!"

Sting was dancing in his seat humming along while all the girls started clapping to cheer Jellal on while he sang. It wasn't anything spectacular but at least he was on key, which everyone knew that made it more pleasant to experience. Even Natsu and Gray were laughing while cracking commentary about it. Everyone seemed to be pleased about it except for Laxus. For some reason he still wasn't into it.

" _your beautiful soul…"_ Jellal sang out the last line of the song, holding out his free arm dramatically before holding up the mic waiting for the next person.

Sting jumped up and grabbed it before taking the other one and handing it to Rouge. Rouge just raised a brow before taking the mic and standing up with Sting.

"We can sing something even older than that" Sting smirked before scrolling and finding what he wanted.

Take It Easy by the Eagles started playing and Rouge started laughing as Sting started belting the first line.

 _"Well Imma running down the road tryna loosen my load, I got seven women on my mind. Four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me, one says she's a friend of mine."_

Both of them proceeded to harmonize on the song as they sang " _take it easy, take it easy. Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy."_

"I don't like country" Laxus scowled, "It's just pitchy garbage."

Gray and Natsu laughed at his comment followed by Gajeel's shrug. As if Laxus knew anything about critiquing music genres. If knew anything about constructive criticism then he would've taken his grandpa's several thousand pieces of advice when it came to his guitar playing. After Sting and Rouge had finished Natsu drug Gray up with him saying that they could play a better karaoke song then that.

Gray scowled at Natsu as he saw his finger hover over the song, "You really can't get over our high school talent show routine can you?"

"Fucking christ" Laxus groaned already knowing what they were doing since he got drug to all their little contests and events by Makarov when they all lived together in the same house.

 _"Baby it's the way you make me, kinda get me go crazy, Never wanna stop. It's gotta be you!"_

Sting and Rouge watched half admiringly and half amused at the sheer absurdity of the lead singer to a punk band singing and dancing to a B-boy song. Especially since he and Gray were coordinating. Jellal was very impressed and so was Gajeel who never got to see their routine in high school. Natsu occasionally got Gray to do the routine over again when he made the ice tits lose a bet, but Natsu didn't know why he had fun singing this song.

Lucy felt a small heat rise to her cheeks as she watched Natsu dance around and sing in perfect harmony to one of her favorite middle school songs. Natsu didn't miss her expression and decided to mess with her by winking at her. Lucy wanted to scowl but it came off as cross between a cream puff and a tomato trying to blow a raspberry. Natsu had to hold in a laugh as he finished off the song with Gray, both of them panting and mildly sweating afterwards.

"Oh, me next!" Mira jumped up, surprising Laxus, "You girls too~!"

The white haired girl jogged over and grabbed Erza and Cana's arms and drug them up to the screen handing Cana the extra mic. She knew the perfect song for them to sing, and all the girls in the room started cheering and hollering at the two.

 _Question. Tell me what you think about me. I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings. Only ring your celly when I'm feelin lonely. When it's all over, please get up and leave._

Even though the other girls in the room didn't have a microphone they were also belting the song at the top of their lungs, even Kagura was getting into the karaoke spirit, surprisingly enough. They all starting to throw their arms in the air when it got to a part of the chorus.

 _All the women, who are independent_

 _Throw your hands up at me._

 _All the honeys, who making money_

 _Throw your hands up at me._

 _All the mommas, who profit dollars_

 _Throw your hands up at me._

 _All the ladies who truly feel me,_

 _Throw your hands up at me._

Natsu was enjoying the show as all the girls were crowding into their own mosh-pit in the middle of the room in order to sing the song together. Then it hit Natsu like a ton of bricks. This song was so important to all of them because they'd lived through it. They were all independent women, all single, well except Yukino now. They all were financially on their own for most if not all of their lives. Especially in the line of work they had, their only pride was their independence. It also ruined Natsu's mood watching Lucy laugh with a small glimmer of liquid in the corner of her eyes. The worst part was he couldn't tell if it was just tears of joy from the moment, or tears of sorrow from the past remembering the struggle of being an "independent woman." It caused Natsu's stupid grin to thin into a line of concentration. This didn't escape Gray's notice as he elbowed Natsu probably harder than was necessary, but he didn't want to see Natsu pouting when nothing had gone wrong yet. Judging by the calculating look on Gray's face, Natsu assumed he picked up on the song's meaning for the girls as well. Laxus was looking down at his legs, and Gajeel had a weird expression on his face as he tried to look at the far wall. The only person who didn't seem to understand the situation was Jellal. He was enthralled with the girls' charisma and energy. Not only that but Natsu could see dollar signs rolling behind his eyeballs. The pinkette was certain that the president had a more developed hearing specialty than Erik did, and the most disconcerting part was he was looking right at Lucy. Natsu wasn't uncomfortable with other men looking at Lucy, since he liked to flaunt her around as his "not girlfriend." Making sure every person who bumped into him got he memo that she wasn't available. However the way Jellal was looking at her made Natsu more concerned than anything.

Eventually the evening winded down and every headed back to their bungalows. Sting and Yukino were especially sickening to watch as the walked away tangled in each others arms tripping over each others feet as they exchanged kisses. Natsu made a fake gagging noise as Gajeel and Laxus walked up to him.

"You just wait" Gajeel slapped him hard across the middle of his back, "Not too long from now that could be you."

Natsu looked over his shoulder with a look that suggested he'd rot in hell first before he looked that ridiculously in love. Only a few moments later Lucy had skipped out of the building holding a business card. Natsu had no doubt it was the president's. He was spot on with his assumptions.

"Luce" Natsu tried to stay calm as the blond looked up at him innocently, "Be careful." He warned her

Lucy scowled at him before asking, "Were you eaves dropping?"

"No" Natsu shook his head, "I knew what he was up to before we even left the karaoke room. I didn't need to eavesdrop. You walking outta there holding his business card just confirms it."

"Mind your own P's and Q's" Lucy jokingly slapped his arm trying to keep the mood playful.

Natsu shrugged then said, "The music industry isn't what it's cracked up to be. I'm just warning you. It has a way of ruining parts of your life you'd never imagine."

Lucy looked solemnly over at Natsu understanding that he was probably speaking from personal experience. Distracted from her depressing mood, Lucy looked over to see Sting and Yukino still slowly making their way down the board walk laughing and poking each other while never ceasing skin to skin contact. She soon adopted the same expression as Natsu wanting to gag in the back of her mouth. A pang of jealousy made its way inside of her though, because she hadn't had a relationships since High school and she was in her early 20's now. What did that speak of her? Was she going to die an old maid? She knew there was time, but the fact that her 19 year old friend she cared for like a little sister as finding romance before she did made her a tiny bit jealous.

"Natsu" Lucy called the pinkette's name snapping his attention to her, "Can you do me a favor?"

The pinkette raised his brow at Lucy questioningly without a verbal response. After a few moments of silence, Lucy reached over and grabbed his arm with both of hers and squeezed it against her.

"Can we walk like this?"

Natsu visibly cringed and wished he hadn't. It was an involuntary response to the surprise contact, but the furious blush that was making its way onto his face was giving him away. He tried to look away from Lucy as he turned towards the bungalow and nodded silently as he started walking towards their room. Lucy looked down at the ground, more afraid to make eye contact with Natsu than falling over an object on the path.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Luce" Natsu groaned in his sleep

Lucy was humming against his skin and nuzzling his chest. Natsu rolled his eyes behind his closed lids. He was sweating and it was incredibly hot at night at this place and Lucy's body warmth was _too_ warm.

"Lucy you're too warm, scoot over to your side" Natsu whined as he tried to untangle himself from her.

Lucy woke up and felt a sudden jolt of embarrassment at the situation she had landed herself in she immediately retracted herself and curled up into a ball without so much as uttering anything other than a soft gasp she made when she woke up.

"Well you don't have to act like I'm diseased" Natsu scowled at her for the over dramatic reaction.

Lucy just turned over on her side and tried to fall back asleep without feeling the security of Natsu's body heat to let her know he was close by while she slept.

* * *

"Again?" Natsu sighed in frustration as he felt a familiar pair of limbs tangled around him.

He looked outside and saw it was finally daytime. The clock on his nightstand read 10am so he wasn't too concerned with going back to sleep. He looked up at the ceiling for a while before turning to face the blond. She was centimeters from touching his nose with her after Natsu had turned his head to look at her. His face grew red at the close proximity, but he took the time he had to study her face. How soft her skin looked, the thickness of her eyelashes, the shape of her eyebrows, the curve of her lips. Before he knew it he had leaned in and was dangerously close to putting his mouth on hers.

 _"She won't wake up"_ Natsu told himself as he diverted his mouth to her cheek to place a gentle kiss on her skin.

In order to avoid anymore unwanted urges Natsu looked back up at the ceiling while laying on his back without moving in order to let Lucy sleep in even though she had gotten plenty of rest. Another half hour passed before the blond stirred awake and Natsu moved to get up to get his clothes and dress in the bathroom while Lucy woke the rest of the way up. What he wasn't expecting was to have his wrist grabbed before he could push himself off of the bed.

"Wait" Lucy bit her lip.

Natsu looked over his shoulder at her to see how conflicted she looked. Natsu had no idea what she had been dreaming about but obviously it was bothering her.

"Why did you kiss me?"

Natsu felt all his hairs stand up on his body as his brain reeled to try and find an explanation. Had he made a mistake thinking she was asleep? Did he wake her up? Did she not want him to kiss her cheek? Was he in trouble?

"I…" Lucy looked downwards at the sheets in order to avoid eye contact that was making her anxiety worse, "I liked it…"

Natsu raised his brows as a mixture of uncertainty and happiness started to flood his insides. He at least knew that he wasn't in trouble anymore so he scooted back onto the bed and swung his legs back up from where they were off the side. He laid back down on his back and looked over at Lucy while patting the mattress area beside him. Lucy slowly crawled over and curled up against his side, slinging an arm across his waist. Natsu laid his own arm across hers then looked down at her face that was resting on the side of his chest.

"What do you think of me?" Natsu asked boldly.

He could feel Lucy physically cringe from the question before she answered, "I… don't know."

Natsu let out a small sigh. That wasn't the answer he was going for. Especially if she was telling him that she liked that he kissed her cheek. After a few moments of silence he felt Lucy shift her weight so that she was half on top of him looking up at his face.

"What do _you_ think of me?" She asked hesitantly.

Natsu quirked a brow at her before scratching his chin and looking her right in eyes, "I think a lot of you."

Lucy blushed before slightly scowling at his vague answer, "Like, how?"

"I think you're the most beautiful woman I know. I think that you're talented. I think that you're strong. I think you are amazing. I think you're perfect. I think a lot of things about you" Natsu smirked playfully.

Lucy's scowl turned to a face of wonder at Natsu's words as she asked, "so…"

"I care about you as more than a friend, Luce. But I'm not going to do anything about it if you're on the fence."

Lucy raised her brows even further in surprise at Natsu's blatant confession before crawling completely on to of him and leaning her lips down slowly to connect with his. Before they were able to kiss for more than a few seconds there was a loud knock at their door and Natsu suddenly became more pissed than he remembered himself being capable of.

"What" he growled as he angrily flung the hut's door open.

"Wheeeeeeew" Gray threw his hands up in mock surrender at the seething pinkette.

"Sorry to interrupt pillow talk but we're all going to brunch, it's almost the end of our vacation. We leave the day after tomorrow."

"Is this an invitation? Or a requirement?" Natsu crossed his arms.

Gray sensed the pinkette's aversion to wanting to go and picked up on the question. Natsu was after whether Gray and the others were simply asking, or if the _president_ of the record label was orchestrating it.

"Invitation" Gray said before he twitched his mouth to the side in slight irritation at the hostility.

"Rain check" Natsu said as he closed the door and walked back to where Lucy was.

"I thought you didn't like staying in the hut" Lucy nervously laughed sightly thankful for Gray's diversion so she could get a grip on herself.

"We weren't done talking" Natsu stated matter of factly.

Lucy scratched the back of her head from her slight anxiety kicking back in, "We weren't exactly talking anymore…"

"You're right" Natsu said as he grabbed Lucy's arm and pulled her into his lap and gently placed his lips against hers in a soft kiss. He felt Lucy stiffen a bit so he slowly broke away from her and looked up into her eyes and saw a mixture of happiness and confusion in her face.

"You've… never been in a relationship, have you?" Natsu asked sensing her displaced aura.

Lucy shook her head as tears started to pool in the corners of her eyes, "The life I had in high school bared me from having one, and then when I went strait into the type of job that I came from, well… it's hard to make anything in that situation work…"

Natsu nodded knowing she didn't want to fully explain why being a stripper made having a boyfriend a nearly unaffordable luxury. It was rather obvious why it would be hard to date someone while in a situation like that. But now that she wasn't in that position it made her a free woman. After raising his thumbs up to her face to wipe the tears away that hadn't fallen yet Natsu looked at her with a calculating look trying to weigh his words carefully.

"Relationships aren't supposed to be stressful Lucy. We can do this however you want. If you need more time and don't want to label it yet, that's ok. You can set the speed limit."

"So I can still kiss you?" Lucy asked innocently making Natsu chuckle.

"Of course you can" he said before tipping his head sideways and gently replacing his mouth where it had been before.

* * *

"They didn't want to come becauseeeee?" Erza asked impatiently as she stood in line for the brunch buffet at the resort with Gray and Juvia.

"He didn't say" Gray shrugged, "Looked like both he and Lucy were awake, I guess they didn't want to."

"Maybe they already ate?" Juvia tried to offer a possible answer that would placate Erza.

 _"Or maybe they were too busy fucking each other in the closet"_ Erza thought bitterly as she made her way through the line.

Erza just scowled before slapping food angrily onto her plate and then slumping down at the table next to Cana. The brunette didn't miss a beat when she saw her friend sit down next to her with an overly irate aura.

"You mad?" Cana asked with a knowing smirk.

Erza just cast her a sideways glance before shoving food in her mouth.

"Mad about everyone shacking up?" Cana asked, clarifying and hitting the nail on the head.

Erza froze with her fork in her mouth before turning her head slowly to glare strait at Cana who was sporting a devious grin from her not-so-lucky guessing. After a few seconds of gloating Cana managed to flag down a server for a mimosa before turning her attention back to her crimson haired companion.

"A bit of tipsy advice" Cana smirked then sipped on her mimosa, "You have a chance to get one everyone else is getting. You're just to scared to try."

"What? Me? Scared?" Erza scoffed at the mere suggestion of her own fears.

Cana shrugged, "Could've fooled me. You had a whole night to try and karaoke with Jellal and even explain yourself to him, but you didn't. You sat next to me and cowered."

Gray walked up to the table with a loud cough sensing the oncoming fight between the two girls. Juvia sat down next to Gray as they both started to eat their food as well as find neutral conversation topics.

"I heard pinky and brain are getting along well" Cana managed to hum despite Gray's attempts at avoiding topics of romance, especially about Natsu and Lucy who had forfeited going out to brunch with everyone in favor of keeping to themselves.

Wiping the food from his mouth and clearing his throat Gray answered, "They've always gotten along. I can't remember a time where the _didn't_ get along, even when Lucy clubbed him with a lamp."

"Good times" Cana laughed, downing the rest of her drink.

"At least Levy had an actual excuse. Everyone else is just being disgusting." Erza grumbled into her omelet.

* * *

"Gajeeeeeeeel!" Levy whined from the bedroom.

"Yeah shorty?" Gajeel grunted as he walked from the back deck back into the bungalow.

Levy was trying to pick at her skin and was starting to form tears in her eyes from the popping blisters all over her body. She looked at Gajeel with the face of a kicked puppy.

"Awwww shorty c'mon" Gajeel sighed as he walked over to her, "You need to stop picking at that. Won't you just let me take you to a doctor here? Those blisters could get infected and this looks real painful."

"Damn right it's painful!" Levy growled before biting her words since Gajeel was only trying to help, "Can you just put more Aloe on it?"

"Sure shrimp" Gajeel said as he walked into the bathroom to find the bottle of clear gel with little air bubbles on it that had a picture of the semi-cactus looking plant that seemed to be Levy's only solution to being horrendously sunburned.

"I still think some anti-bacterial lotion would be a good idea. These blisters look deep." He commented as he slowly pressed his hand to Levy's back while she hissed from the both soothing and painful cold sensation spreading across her bare back.

"Do you know all the garbage they put in that stuff? I'd be poisoning my body more than protecting it" Levy scoffed in between small twitches of pain from Gajeel slowly spreading the gel.

Gajeel had to try and look slightly away and use his peripheral vision in order to finish applying the lotion since applying it to the worst of her burns on her back meant that she had to take off whatever shirt or top she was wearing and just cover her chest with it. Seeing that much skin all at once gave Gajeel flash backs to her accidental flashing of him on their first day here at the resort.

"Don't tell me you're a hippy" Gajeel tried to tease the bluenette in order to try and distract himself from his attraction to her.

"Hippy? I think the term is self aware. I'm aware of all the garbage they put in almost everything nowadays, especially medicine."

"You aren't worried about the junk in food?" Gajeel asked almost chuckling.

Levy harumph'd before she answered, "The chemicals in food have a lot less room to permanently ruin your life than the chemicals in modern experimental medicine."

"The chemicals in some anti-bacterial cream isn't going to be experimental shorty."

"I already said no" Levy turned around and scowled with finality.

Gajeel just gave her a weary expression before applying more gel to her back and rubbing it the rest of the way in in order to get Levy some kind of relief from her sunburn.

* * *

"Are you sure we shouldn't have gone?" Yukino clicked the screen of her phone on, looking at Erza's text message about brunch.

"Nah" Sting breathed onto Yukino's next, "Breakfast in bed was better."

Yukino's face turned blood red as she playfully swatted at the seductive blond beside her. Sting laughed before pulling her against his chest and breathing the scent of her hair in deeply. He knew that this vacation would come to an end and they probably wouldn't be able to have moments like this since he shared a room with Sting and Juvia shared a room with Yukino. There wasn't anywhere genuinely private for them, and Sting dreaded not being able to be next to her like this.

"I was thinking…" Sting sighed, "Maybe we could get our own place when we get back?"

"What?" Yukino gasped, "I mean, why?"

Sting bit his lip trying to find the best way to explain things, "Well I share a room with Rouge, and you share one with Juvia as well right? Well, how are we ever going to be able to be like this without letting everyone know about it?"

Yukino sighed seeing the point of his arguement, "We could always switch up the sleeping arrangements? Maybe someone would be willing to trade rooms with me so I can have my own?"

Sting shrugged, "That's true I guess, but at this rate everyone seems to be… pairing off I guess. Damn that fucking Cana and her pranks."

"Are you really upset that she put us in a room together?" Yukino asked with uncertainty in her voice.

Sting raised his eyebrows before trying to retract his words, "No no no no of course not. I mean, I wasn't happy about losing control, but I really like you and I like spending time with you. I just think things might've turned out better if she let this happen naturally instead of forcing everyone on each other…"

"I guess that's true" Yukino breathed out the air she was holding in, "But there's no use thinking about what could've happened. We should just focus on making the most of what's already happened."

Sting pulled Yukino's lips against his own as he tried to change the subject from their semi-fortunate circumstances to the here and now, which is what he assumed she wanted when she reciprocated his intimacy.

* * *

"So" Laxus breathed out trying to get Mira's attention.

Mira turned to face him with a questioning expression, "hm?"

Laxus scratched the back of his head, "What do you think about Sting and Yukino?"

"Im happy for her" Mira shrugged, "I don't think that was the best situation, but it happened and they seem to have resolved it before it escalated to a worse one. I just hope they're both careful. They're awfully young."

"You aren't exactly an old hag yourself" Laxus grunted.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say that was an attempt at a compliment" Mira deviously smirked at him.

"Attempt?" Laxus scoffed.

Mira came over and sat down next time him, "We're in our mid 20's Laxus. Yukino, Sting, and Rouge are practically children compared to you and I."

"Does that make us the parents?" Laxus chuckled.

Mira also cackled slightly as she answered, "In some ways I guess so. Cana helps me a little since she's only a year or so younger than me, but sometimes if she lets herself go too much I end up having to parent her too."

"Cana's the reason we're all in this mess right now."

"Mess?" Mira asked questioningly.

"Y'know… us two having to share a room and all the fighting and drama."

Mira gave him a knowing smile before asking, "Do you regret it? How much better do you know me now compared to when you practically shoved me away back home? Cana does some pretty despicable things sometimes, but she always has a reason."

"What?" Laxus gave Mira a twisted face of confusion.

"She put some of co-ed arrangements together because they already got along like Lucy and Natsu or Kagura and Rouge. They wouldn't fight much and enjoy their vacation all the same. Others like you and I, or Gray and Juvia she put together because she saw us disconnecting at work. You shut me out and Gray shut Juvia out. There was a lack of communication and understanding. She did this for us to better get to know each other, even if it isn't romantically."

Laxus sat back and digested the information a bit before he turned to Mira and asked, "Do you still hate me?"

"I never hated you" she laughed, "You're like a Teddy bear but you coat yourself in napalm so no one wants to get close to you. It's something you do to yourself, but since I see it I know not to get angry over it. Everyone is the way they are for a reason, and I'm guessing you're no different."

"I…" Laxus tried not choke on her words until Mira put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You don't owe me and explanation Laxus. It's ok. You can tell me when you're ready."

Laxus nodded and grunted in understanding as the both went back to sitting in silence watching the island's TV that surprisingly had some cable television networks on it.

* * *

2 Days Later

"I hope you guys are ready to head back and put your noses to the grindstone" Erik has spoken to them through a skype face-time call.

Everyone was a mixture of well rested and exhausted. Vacations always helped to de-stress, but they were physically draining especially when they went out of their way to do a whole bunch of things.

"You guys'll make back just in time for thanks giving!" Makarov was trying to jump into the range of the camera.

"We'll see you when we land gramps" Laxus did a single wave into the camera.

"Have a good flight guys" Erik smiled before the call ended.

"He's so nosey" Sting grumbled.

Natsu shrugged, "It's not like he's our boss or anything right?" he asked sarcastically.

Sting punched his shoulder before climbing onto the plane. They were in for a long flight back and everyone was both emotionally and physically tired. The flight back was a lot less rowdy than the flight on the way there. Most of trip was spent arguing over who would get to use the two beds with a curtain to sleep. They all drew straws and the winners for the first half of the flight were Gray and Erza. Erza went strait back to claim her prize and nap, but Gajeel reluctantly gave up his claim to Levy who was still a burnt mess. She was obviously uncomfortable and looked like she could use a nap.

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly.

Gajeel nodded and the bluenette scampered back to the other open bed and crawled onto it before closing the curtain. Gray and Natsu just stared at the metal head with raised brows in an idiotic expression of surprise. Gajeel wasn't one to typically sacrifice for someone else unless there was some indirect benefit to himself.

"So how was your vacation with Levy?" Gray asked snidely.

"It was fine" Gajeel grunted trying to cut Gray off while he was ahead.

"Didn't see much of you guys around the resort for most of the vacation" he remarked with a devilish grin.

Gajeel scowled before sneering, "That's because rock lobster there couldn't really leave the bungalow after her sunscreen mishap. I didn't mind though. Gave me time to tinker around on my guitar before your little pixie took it" turning to glare at Natsu.

"She said you let her borrow it" Natsu shrugged, "That's not _my_ fault."

"I let her borrow it because she asked with the face of a kicked puppy. How was I supposed to say no to that?"

"Easy" Natsu laughed, "First pronounce the letter 'n', followed by the vowel 'o'."

Gajeel kicked his leg before teasing, "I bet you don't tell her no either."

Natsu smirked before saying, "She actually tells _me_ no."

"Oh?" Gray leaned in, still sporting the shit eating grin from before.

Natsu took a quick glance over at Lucy and saw a blank expression as well as a gaze that meant she was listening to what he was saying. Knowing that he had to weigh his words carefully Natsu tried to just grin and brush off what he'd said.

"C'mon man, you can't just leave it at that" Gray tried to egg him on.

Natsu crossed his arms and shrugged, "It was mostly a joke, but every woman has a right to tell a man no to even hugging her."

Gray took Natsu's half ass answer and shrugged along with Gajeel.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Lucy flung herself onto her and Natsu's bed with a sigh of relief. The flight back passed quicker than the one there since they were all tired. Natsu dropped both of their duffel bags and crawled onto the bed next to her. She blinked a few times looking right into his charcoal eyes. She smiled a bit before burrowing under the covers of the bed.

"Luce" Natsu tried to keep himself from laughing, "It's 11am. You can't possibly want to sleep?"

"I didn't get much sleep on the plane" Lucy groaned, "I'm exhausted!"

"Fine" Natsu sighed in defeat, "But I'm not, so you get the bed to yourself."

Lucy let out a joyful squeaking sound as Natsu slid off the bed with a chuckle after waking her with a pillow. Sitting down at his desk, Natsu pulled out his notebook and started making more progress on some of the song lyrics that he'd been putting off their whole vacation. Especially the one about a sexy drug. Looking over at Lucy, his inspiration for the song, Natsu just let a small blush grace his cheeks as he watched her sleeping with a smirk on his face.

* * *

"Yea, I promise we'll head over there gramps" Laxus spoke into his phone with mild irritation, "Yes I know how much Thanksgiving means to you, but are you sure you'll be able to host _all_ of us? There's more than twice as many of us now."

Mirajane couldn't help but chuckle at Laxus's flustered attempts to get off the phone with his grandfather. It was undoubtedly about Thanksgiving. Their plane had finally landed and they only had a few days left until the holiday. Mirajane never really dreaded Thanksgiving, but she never really got overly excited about it either. She and her two siblings would gather at her place, and share the best meal she could conjure up with her wages and eat in silence. It wasn't the same without their parents there anymore, it hadn't been for years, but Mira didn't let that stop her from trying to make it the best she knew how.

"If you say so" Laxus groaned, "I gotta go gramps, but we'll come over ok. Just text me what time you want all of us to crash your house."

"If he needs help cooking I'll do it" Mirajane added in before he hung-up.

"Mira said she'll help you" Laxus added before saying, "Goodbye gramps, I'll see you at the studio tomorrow."

After clicking his cellphone close Laxus turned to Mira was raised eyebrows as he asked her, "Why did you offer to help?"

"Why not?" Mira added, "I can't honestly put the burden of cooking an entire meal for an army on one old man. What kind of person would I be?" she chuckled.

Laxus just smirked at her before leaning his head back on the leather sofa. He'd gone to the girls' house next door since Lucy was held up in Natsu's room and Sting and Rouge had Yukino and Kagura over to watch the newest episodes of Game of Thrones. It made his house a lot more crowded and their house look a lot more inviting.

"You look tired" she told him, "Do you need to go back to your house and rest?"

"I would if I could" he said, "But everyone's over there and it's loud as hell. I'd need earplugs and a noise canceling machine."

Mirajane just sighed as she stood up then said, "You're welcome to rest here if you want. Erza and Cana are out somewhere, and Levy and I aren't very loud."

"You sure?" Laxus asked hesitantly as he scratched the back of his head, "I don't want to impose on your guys."

"Does it look like you're imposing?" Mira asked as she tugged on her pajama pants to emphasize the casualness of his stopping by, "Levy is upstairs reading and I just need to get some bills and filing in order for Lisana's college tuition and Elfman's title transfer. We had a family car in my parent's name, but now that all of us are adults the car has to go in somebody's name for liability, but Elfman's the only one that really drives it. I have to mail in the title document and get his tags sent to him by the end of this month. Anyways, that's not important I'm sorry." Mira stopped herself realizing she was rambling as she waved a dismissive hand as she stood up to head into the kitchen.

Laxus stood up and walked behind her, stopping and leaning himself in the doorway while he watched Mira fill a pot of tea and put it on the stove to boil, "I don't mind listening" he told her, "You never told me about your family."

"Not much to tell" she fake smiled as she tried to make the topic seem uninteresting, "Parents died while we were really young, I took care of them until they were adults and left the nest, and then I did what I had to to survive once the state stopped paying child support for us to live off of."

"I'm sorry" Laxus tried to say without too much emotion in his voice.

"No" Mira sighed, "Really it's fine. I wouldn't be who I am without having gone through what I have. I would like to think I'm better for it."

"That's an odd way to look at it" Laxus commented but quickly corrected himself as he added, "But not bad. Just, different."

Mira smiled at him as she pulled a mug down from the cabinet, "You want some tea?"

"I'm not much of a tea man" Laxus grunted but right before Mira closed the cabinet he said, "But I'll try some."

Mira gave him a little smirk of her own before taking a second mug down and sprinkling a little sugar in each. After brewing the tea she poured the two mugs, then handed one to Laxus and leaned against the counter top as she let the first euphoric sip reach her lips.

"Isn't hot tea nice on a cold day?" She asked looking up at Laxus.

Laxus just grunted as he took a sip. Tea wasn't something he would go out of his way to make. It was something Gray or Rouge would make for themselves, but he found it slightly emasculating. But drinking it with Mira he didn't care. He just wanted an excuse to stay with her longer. He found her presence both relaxing and intoxicating.

"So what's your family like?" Mira asked.

"You already met all of them" Laxus said as he let go of the mug with one hand to point over his shoulder towards where the boys' house was, "That's all I have left in this world."

"No mother or father?" She asked pryingly, emphasizing that she was referring to blood relatives.

"No" Laxus said bluntly, but then added, "I'm not sure where they are or if they're alive. They were both drug addicts. I was taken into state custody until gramps took me in then got a court order for my parents to lose not only custody but contact with me. He said it was for the best, but because of that I have no idea what happened to them. Natsu and Gray followed behind, then came Sting and Rouge. My grandfather has this habit of collecting strays."

"I didn't know" Mira commented softly with reverence at the situation, "The way you all fight like cats and dogs doesn't give me that impression."

"You don't fight with your siblings?" He asked with a smirk.

Mira made a "tch" noise with a laugh, "I guess you have a point. Since you all have different last names and look nothing alike I didn't think to ask about your living situation in the past."

"It wasn't important" Laxus tried to make Mira feel less oblivious for not knowing sooner, "We are who we are, and the only important relationships we have are the ones we make, regardless of blood relation."

Mira smiled up at the blond, "You're more insightful then people give you credit for."

Laxus let a small blush make it's way onto his face. He preferred not to talk in groups, but one on one was a different story. He hasn't remember talking this much for a long time. The last time was probably a conversation with Gajeel months ago.

* * *

2 Days Later

"We're not going to the studio?" Natsu asked with a groan at how much this was going to cost them taking a day off.

"It's closed flame brain" Gray sneered, "It's a holiday."

"What?" Natsu asked confused before trying to count on his fingers.

"Thanksgiving" Rouge chimed in staring at the pinkette with a blank face of astonishment at his obliviousness.

Lucy came down the stairs with a yawn in a t-shirt and shorts with her house slippers, "What's all the fuss?"

"It's Thanksgiving!" Natsu shouted, "We're going to go to gramps' house and eat _everything_!"

Lucy just rolled her eyes before looking around at the rest of them, "Wait. What? We're going out somewhere?"

"We're not eating out" Laxus told all of them, "We're going to Makarov's house. He's hosting Thanksgiving this year. We need to leave soon though, so go get dressed, all of you."

"It's only 9 o'clock!" Lucy shouted in disbelief pointing to a clock on the wall.

"You forget that we're cooking Thanksgiving for over ten people. We have to go over there and help set up and help Makarov cook."

"We didn't do that last year" Gray commented with his arms crossed on his bare chest.

"Times change" Laxus scowled. There's not six of us this year there's 14. I think we could lend a hand."

"What caused this change in attitude?" Gajeel asked with a sickening grin.

Laxus didn't even respond to him and scowled before grunting, "We leave in an hour. Go get ready."

* * *

Lucy looked in the driveway to see that there was a giant van parked. She assumed that Laxus had ordered it yesterday or had someone else drive it to the house.

"Is this going to fit everyone?" Lucy asked skeptically as she looked at the 7 seats and then the 11 people behind her.

"Where's Erza and Cana?" Lucy asked looking around

"Over here!" they shouted from their driveway next door, "Four of you come get in this car!"

Gajeel and Levy started walking towards them when Cana started walking towards the van. She was the one who drove a truck and also was the one who had the most experience driving large cars. After Gajeel and Levy Gray and Juvia both walked towards the sedan as well. Erza then got inside the car and turned the ignition to start the car's engine to warm it up and get some warm air in the car.

After that, Laxus climbed in the passenger seat and everyone else climbed into the back of the van. There was almost enough seating except for one. Yukino stood looking into the van without a single empty seat and was about to suggest climbing into the trunk and laying down out of sight until Sting patted his legs with a smile.

"Uh" Yukino blushed with uncertainty as she climbed inside then said, "I'm not sure this is safe..."

"Sure it is!" Sting smiled, "I'll be your seatbelt!" he told her as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him.

"Couples are gross" Laxus commented before waving over at the driveway Erza was sitting in, signaling for them to all roll out.

* * *

Makarov's house was surprisingly not as close as people assumed it was. His house was in the suburbs about a half hour outside the city. They pulled up to the house and parked the van in the driveway and Erza's sedan out in the street. The house was a humble one story ranch house that appeared to be a little worn and torn, but as soon as they stepped inside they saw how nice the house actually was. The entry room was tile and they all neatly wiped their feet on the welcome mat before coming inside.

"Gramps!" Natsu instantly started yelling as he made his way into the kitchen.

"You guys made it!" Makarov smiled, "But you're a little early" he commented looking at his watch.

"We thought we would help this year" Mira said as she appeared from behind Laxus, "That's a lot of food for just one person to cook."

"Well, thank you..."

"Mirajane" she smiled as she grabbed an apron off a hook by the kitchen doorway.

"Mirajane" Makarov smiled knowingly at Laxus before turning his attention back to the silver haired volunteer, "If you want to start dicing the potatoes to boil them so we can mash them that'd be great."

"Of course!" She said as she went to work skinning and cutting up potatoes.

Everyone else had scattered to various parts of the kitchen, and some of the boys had already poured out into the backyard to ravage the old play-set they'd all grown up with. Natsu ran full speed ahead until he'd managed to jump on the tire swing first and his inertia caused it to swing upwards so hard it almost swung over the lake the house backed up to. Of course it swung backwards as well, and all the girls squealed and tried to get out of the way. Natsu let out a maniacal laugh before he eventually dug his foot down a few times on each swinging motion before the tire came to a stop.

"Any takers?" he asked with a toothy grin.

All the girls looked rather petrified at the swing until Lucy finally raised her hand. Natsu came and dragged her arm and showed her how to sit on top of the tire and hold on. He started pulling the swing back towards the house until he began running and ran all the way until his hands barely held the tire swing then he gave it an extra shove and watched Lucy go. At first the blond screamed but then started to laugh.

"This is kinda fun!" she said, "But how do you not get motion sickness from this?"

"That's a good question" Natsu yelled as he laughed watching he swing back and forth in the distance.

After the swing eventually lost its momentum, Natsu stood in front and stopped it the rest of the way with his arms before helping Lucy off of the tire. However once Lucy's legs were back on the ground they were made of jell-o and she felt a sudden rush of nausea hit her like a ton of bricks. She ran over to the base of the tree the tire was tied to before vomiting. Everyone looked at her with mild concern until she gave a thumbs up that meant she was really ok.

"Don't tell me you're pregnant already!" Levy teased with a joking smile.

The joke was meant to just be that, a joke. Levy didn't mean any harm by it, but something about it put Lucy on edge and she tried to spit the rest of the stomach acid out of her mouth before turning around to face them.

"Well at least I haven't had sex" Lucy tried to defend herself and what felt like her honor.

"Not with Natsu" Kagura commented snidely while picking at her nails.

"I'm going inside" Lucy said as she stomped towards the house.

Natsu just looked over at Kagura with a scowling expression while Levy was chastising her for taking it too far. Kagura didn't seem to understand the concept of subtlety and common courtesy. Natsu followed Lucy back inside the house and got her a glass of water while she sat down in the living room.

"You wana tell me what that was about?" he asked her as he handed her the glass of water.

Lucy just shook her head without looking him in the eye as she said, "It was a long time ago."

"I thought you said you've never had a boyfriend?"

Lucy nodded as tears started forming and falling down her cheeks, "I didn't have one."

"Oh" Natsu said as he sat next to her on the sofa.

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to comfort her. She obviously felt sick now because of him pushing her on the swing, and she felt horrible after what Kagura had said. Natsu wasn't really sure why girls were capable of being mean without even really trying.

"Is there somewhere I can just lay down for a little while?" Lucy asked feeling bad for wanting to isolate herself, but thinking that it was better she did before she brought the whole party down.

Natsu nodded as he took her arm and pulled her up off the sofa and down the hall to where his old bedroom was. He was surprised when he saw that Makarov hadn't changed anything about it. There was still a tub of legos in the corner. Natsu and Gray's yearbooks were still in their bookshelves. Picture frames on top of them with several photos growing up. Natsu's bulletin board that had Polaroid pictures of him in high school, movie tickets, and other knick knacks and mementos. The bed was a small twin bed, but it still had his navy blue sheets. Lucy made her way over to the bed and sat on it before pulling the comforter up over her legs to keep warm.

"Wait" Natsu said with a chuckle as he checked under his bed, "No way! He kept it!" he shouted with a laugh as he pulled a blue stuffed cat out from under his bed and handed it to Lucy.

"What in the world is this?" Lucy asked laughing between sniffles from her crying earlier.

"This" Natsu said as he handed the plush cat to her, "Is Happy. This was my best friend for a long time. I named him Happy because he would always make me feel better when I was sad. Maybe, he can help you out too." Natsu said the last sentence a little more softly as he sat down on the bed across from Lucy and tried to wipe a few of the tears off her face.

"I" Natsu started to say but was trying to be careful not to make the situation worse, "I don't care about what Kagura said. I mean, I care that it hurt your feelings. But what she said doesn't make me think less of you."

Lucy looked up at Natsu's face and looked at his eyes for the first time since they'd come inside. She saw the sincerity behind his eyes and tried to make herself smile, but she tightened her lips and it felt more like a chipmunk trying to keep food in its mouth. Natsu laughed a little at her expression before leaning in and kissing her softly on the lips while still holding her cheek. After a few minutes of kissing her Natsu stood up and pulled the cover the rest of the way over Lucy.

"You want me to stay with you?" Natsu asked hesitantly.

Lucy shook her head before pooping the stuffed blue cat's head out from under the comforter, "Happy will keep me company."

Natsu laughed softly before making his way to the bedroom door and dimming the bedroom lights and then closing the door behind him.

"She ok?" Gray asked looking at the door over Natsu's shoulders.

"I don't know" Natsu sighed in frustration, "I hope this doesn't ruin her Thanksgiving."

"I saw her come into the house crying from outside. What happened?" Gray asked.

Natsu just shook his head as he said, "Some people just said some careless shit and it messed with her."

Gray scowled then asked, "It wasn't Juvia was it?"

"No" Natsu said quickly, "Juvia was standing on the back deck when I saw her. I don't even think she heard the conversation."

"Ok" Gray breathed out a sigh of relief, "There's always next year for a better Thanksgiving I guess" he put his hand on Natsu's shoulder trying to comfort him.

"Well" Natsu shrugged, "I wanted this to be nice for her. I know she thinks I don't realize it, but this is the first Thanksgiving she's spent with a family in a long time. At least, the closest thing she has to family. She's been alone for years. I wanted to make it special."

"I know man" Gray sighed, "A lot of these girls have been alone for years. They've only had themselves and occasionally each other to rely on. It's weird, since even though we were alone as kids a lot, Makarov always made things special for us. I don't remember even celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas before he brought us home."

"I don't either" Natsu said with a smile as he made his way towards the kitchen but turned over his shoulder to look at Gray, "Let's just try and brush this off ok? Don't talk about Lucy resting in our room or anything. Just let everyone think she's just hanging around and she'll pop back out here when she's ready."

Gray nodded to acknowledge what Natsu was saying before the two of them walked into the kitchen. Laxus was sitting at a corner table watching Mira and Makarov cook the food. Natsu felt like there wasn't anything better for him to do, so he grabbed an apron and asked Makarov what he wanted him to do.

"Well, you smoked the Turkey last year didn't you? Go fire up the smoker again with the mesquite chips and see if you can't work the same thing again, I'll season and coat it while you go do that."

"Gotcha" Natsu said as he walked outside and pulled the smoke out from under the deck and drug it up onto the deck next to the grill and tried to get it smoking with the chips inside of it.

After he'd gotten it fired up he went inside and took the Turkey covered in oils and herbs and brought it out to the smoker. He thought it would take at least an hour and a half to smoke it and then it would need to go into the oven to finish cooking the rest of the way through. After taking care of the Turkey they wouldn't let Natsu do anything else that involved knives and sharp objects or power kitchen tools like a mixer. Natsu and Gray made their way into the living room and turned the TV on to watch all the holiday programming like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"What's with all of these kid's floats?" Gajeel asked as he walked into the room to watch the show with them.

"No idea" Gray sighed in slight boredom.

Natsu crossed his arms then growled, "The only exciting part of this parade was seeing the mascot on the Mr. Peanut float dab."

Gajeel slightly chuckled at that before Natsu showed him by rewinding the DVR recording of the parade to the Mr. Peanut float. They got a good kick out of it, but afterwards they changed the programming to football. None of them were particularly crazy about sports but it was better that watching another float sing a sesame street song. Eventually the deck sliding door swung open and everyone else who'd been outside shuffled inside smacking their cheeks and rubbing their hands from the cold. Kagura and Rouge immediately saw what was on the TV in the living room and decided to go down to the basement to watch the other TV, Sting and Yukino following behind them. Levy was standing there in the living room before walking over to Natsu and crouching down by the armrest of the sofa he was next to.

Quietly Levy asked, "Is it ok if I check on Lucy?"

Natsu raised a brow at Levy, not really happy that she'd started the whole joke to begin with, even if Kagura is the one that took it too far, "I guess" he sighed, "But if she's sleeping just leave her alone."

Levy nodded before standing up and making her way into the kitchen. She hung up her jacket in the hallway before walking in and trying to find a kettle.

"Stove is occupied" Mira said with a frustrated sigh, wiping the sweat from her forehead, "We're using all the burners."

Levy just huffed as she asked, "Do you have any microwave safe mugs then? I'll just microwave some water then add tea to it."

"Sure" Makarov said as hopping down from his stool he was using so he could reach the counter and drug it to set of cabinets.

After opening one of the cabinets and grabbing a mug down and checking the print on the bottom to make sure it said microwave safe he handed it to Levy with a smile, "Need a hot drink to warm you up, eh?"

"Yea" Levy smiled.

She didn't want to explain to them that it was for Lucy who was probably crying in the dark down the hallway because of a careless mistake she'd made with her words. Makarov showed Levy where the tea bags were and she was surprised the he had so much to pick from. She picked up a lavender tea bag and then pulled the mug out of the microwave and added it. After stirring in some honey Levy took the mug and walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, and down the hall. She had to open a few doors until she found the bedroom that had a lump under the sheets.

"Lucy" Levy whispered carefully, "Are you awake?"

Lucy turned over in the bed and sat up before saying, "Yea I've been awake for a while."

Levy breathed a sigh of relief from not being responsible for waking Lucy up in addition to what she was already guilty of. After walking in she set the warm mug down on the night stand next to the bed and gestured to Lucy that it was her. After the blond picked it up and took a sip she felt much better. The dryness of her throat from bile and crying was slowly melting away.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have joked about that. I know you and Natsu probably haven't done anything like that yet, but it's sometimes fun to poke at you guys since you guys are in denial." Levy confessed as she put her hand on top of Lucy's, "I really didn't mean for Kagura to get carried away and make it worse, but I should've avoided saying that. Forgive me?"

"Of course" Lucy smiled with her puffy red face, "If it was just your joke I wouldn't have gotten upset. You just made me a little flustered. I don't know why Kagura had to go and say what she did. That's the only thing I'm upset about. I'm not mad at you Levy. You and I joke with each other like that all the time anyway."

"I should've have said that in front of Natsu and the other boys though."

Lucy shrugged, "It is what it is. Natsu seems unfazed by it, so it makes me feel childish for being upset over it."

"I wouldn't say that" Levy made a crooked smile on her face as she said, "Natsu was pretty snippy with me when I asked about checking on you, and I don't even want to know what he'd say if Kagura tried to talk to him. He's not very happy about what was said either."

"Well it's just words" Lucy sighed.

"True" Levy said, "But sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword."

"You mean the mouther is mightier than the fist."

"Sure" Levy laughed, "But are you ok sitting in the dark here by yourself?"

Lucy shrugged, "I've spent every Thanksgiving of my adult life alone. I'm indifferent."

"No you're not" Levy scowled at her, "You finally have all your closest friends by your side to celebrate with you, how can you possible be ok sitting back here by yourself?"

Lucy shrugged without a verbal response before Levy walked over to the door and turned the lights slightly higher so the room was less dark. After sitting back down on the bed Levy looked at Lucy with a determined face.

"I won't let you ruin your Thanksgiving" Levy told her, "If you won't come out of here then I won't either."

"Levy!" Lucy whined at her, "Just because I'm a party pooper doesn't mean you have to be one too!"

"Your choice" Levy told her with a stern expression.

"Fine" Lucy huffed, "But I'm finishing my tea first."

Levy smiled and nodded before getting up and walking to the door. Before she left she looked over shoulder back at Lucy and said, "If you aren't out here in the living room in ten minutes I'm coming back in here missy."

"Shoo" Lucy told her before sticking her tongue out of her mouth.

Levy could tell from her reaction that she was already feeling better. After a couple minutes had passed Lucy emerged from the hall and there was no where left in the living room for her to sit. Gajeel, Levy, and Juvia were on one sofa, and then Natsu, Laxus, and Gray were piled onto the other sofa. Natsu noticed and was about to get up and give Lucy his seat until the blond walked over and sat on the floor in front of him. She sat with her side against the sofa, in between his knees, resting her head on one of them. Everyone in the room quietly raised their brows at the two of them, Lucy unaware of it. Natsu just gave everyone a sheepish grin before quietly looking at Lucy's face with an expression that asked if she was ok. Lucy nodded before burying her face in Natsu's leg. The pinkette quietly ran his fingers through her blond locks in a calming motion over and over until he felt her body go limp. He was pretty sure she'd fallen back asleep, but he didn't mind. Everyone else just kept watching the move they'd put on the TV off of Netflix while they waited patiently for the food to be ready.

* * *

Eventually Natsu had to try and quietly disentangle himself from Lucy to go get the Turkey out of the smoker. When he went outside onto the deck he was surprised to see Sting and Rouge standing out there.

"Getting some fresh air?" Natsu asked with a suspicious scowl.

The two of them looked like two deer caught in the headlights before the looked at each other and started busting out laughing. Natsu then smelled what he thought they were doing, weed. Sting and Rouge each had a joint held behind their backs. Natsu grabbed them joins and put them out on the backside of the deck railing before handing the half used joints back to them.

"Take this inside and cook it in the oven the rest of the way and I won't tell gramps you were smoking weed at his house again" Natsu said with a scowl as he held out the deep metal pan with the half cooked turkey in it.

Sting hesitantly grabbed it over the top of the hot pads were Natsu was holding it while Rouge opened the glass slider door for him. The two of them walked into the kitchen Mirajane had stepped out to run to the store to get some of the ingredients they were missing so Sting and Rouge were left unsupervised. After setting the over to the right temperature the two of them looked around the kitchen bored until Sting's eyes landed a few lemons on the corner of the counter.

"When life gives you lemons..." Sting looked over at Rouge with a devious expression before they both started laughing at their wonderful Thanksgiving prank.

After carrying out their devious deeds the two of them scampered back down to the basement trying to walk quickly past everyone so they wouldn't smell the weed on them. Natsu just tried not to laugh at the two of them as he heard them tumble down the stairs.

"Did they get into any alcohol?" Laxus asked scowling at Natsu and Gray, having noticed their odd behavior.

"Nah" Natsu said, "Gramps keeps a dry cabinet here remember? And we didn't bring anything either, unless they brought it themselves."

"That's not entirely impossible" Gray commented before rolling his eyes.

"C'mon it's Thanksgiving, let them have a little fun" Gajeel commented before everyone turned back to the TV.

Lucy had returned to cuddling Natsu's legs after he'd gotten back from taking care of the turkey, but eventually Laxus got up when Mirajane had returned home to go hang out with her in the kitchen. When he got up Gray scooted over and let Lucy sit in between them. Lucy was sitting so she was laying across Natsu's lap, resting her head on the armrest next to them. Natsu had an arm slung around her waist while the other was supporting the weight of his head as he leaned on it. After a while, the timer the twins had set for the turkey went off and Mira walked over to the oven to take it out and everyone heard a scream. Everyone else wondered what was wrong as they shuffled into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of the turkey. Makarov had even made his way into the kitchen from where he was resting in his bedroom. Natsu busted out into uncontrollable laughter as Gray laughed as well.

"Nice job with the turkey flame brain" Gray laughed as he slapped Natsu's shoulder.

"I didn't do it!" Natsu laughed through the tears he was now crying from laughing so hard, "Believe me I wish I had!"

"Then who was it?" Mira asked with a scowl not quite as entertained as the boys over the Turkey.

"The twins?" Laxus asked noticing they were the last ones in the kitchen.

"I'm pretty sure" Natsu tried to gain composure over himself.

All the girls looked at the turkey with mixed reactions. Levy and Lucy laughed a little while Juvia seemed confused. Under the Turkey's skin it looked like there were now boobs on the Turkey. It looked like someone had cut a lemon in half and stuck it under there. It was baked in so Mira couldn't take them out without ruining the rest of the turkey.

"I'll strangle them" Mira said dangerously before Laxus tried to put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"It's fine Mira, what's Thanksgiving without a few things going wrong?" Laxus tried to calm her.

Mira took a deep breath before setting the turkey down on the counter and trying put the finish touches on the rest of the food dishes before asking everyone to carry them to the table. Thankfully Makarov had enough table to where they managed to extend the dining room table to accommodate 14 people. Erza and Cana had arrived right before the meal with bottles of wine since Makarov didn't have any as well as a few beers. Sting and Rouge had now fazed out of their giggling high into the munchies, so they were inhaling their Thanksgiving food while everyone was passing the dishes around to share.

"It's good to have my family home" Makarov smiled from his end of the table at everyone who was fighting, laughing, eating, and sharing together.

* * *

Everyone eventually was loading up into the cars to head home. It was starting to get dark outside, and they'd made sure to wash all the dishes and help Makarov put away the leftover, some of which he'd pawned off on them to take home for themselves. Laxus took the longest time to say goodbye. Everyone cut him some slack though. Makarov was the only blood relative that he had, and even though he saw him regularly it didn't mean that took it for granted.

"You have fun?" Natsu asked Lucy as she buckled her seat belt next to him.

Lucy smiled as she nodded and then yawned before resting her head on Natsu's shoulder. The pinkette leaned his head on top of hers as well. The tryptophan from the turkey was starting to get to all of them. After Mira had taken the driver's wheel from a very intoxicated Cana they all headed towards home. After parking the van in the driveway they all climbed out and Lucy was about to walk inside the house with Natsu when Kagura had called out to her. Lucy looked at Natsu hesitantly before he nodded at her and gestured for her to go talk to Kagura before he disappeared inside.

After everyone had vacated the front yard Kagura looked at Lucy with some remorse, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I wasn't thinking."

"It's ok" Lucy said, "Well, no. It's not really ok, but as long as you know it was wrong and you won't do it again I don't know what else to say."

"That you forgive me?" Kagura asked.

Lucy bit her lip before looking over at the dark haired girl, "I did forgive you, the problem is I don't trust you anymore. I confided in you, and you turned that information against me."

"I understand if you don't trust me anymore" she said "I wouldn't trust me either. I am sorry though."

Lucy nodded before she turned around and shuffled back inside the house before the conversation could get anymore awkward. After Kagura had gone inside her own house Levy had spent ten minutes lecturing her over what she did before Kagura was finally able to brush her teeth and go to bed.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Lucy stirred from her sleep and felt something odd tickling her forehead. It was daylight and so she was able to see around the room. When she sat up and touched her head she was able to feel a santa hat on her head. Upon looking up and seeing the white fuzzy fabric and red hat tail and fuzzy white ball at the end she was certain that's what was on her head.

"Natsu?" Lucy said his name as a question as she turned to see him sitting at his desk.

The pinkette turned around with a big smile plastered on his face at her confusion, "it's been a few weeks since Thanksgiving, so it's time for the next holiday" he told her as he stood from his desk still keeping the smile on his face while making his way over to Lucy, "You like the hat I got you?"

"You mean the one you put on me?" Lucy corrected him, "Giving implies I was awake to properly receive it."

"You're sassy as ever this morning" he remarked before he leaned in and kissed her forehead, "I've always liked that about you."

"Why?" she asked him confused with her half awake expression.

Natsu scratched his head before he grinned, "Because it's part of who you are. You're also funny when you're grouchy."

Lucy just crossed her arms and scowled at him as she slowly started to gain coherency from being awake. Her gesture only caused Natsu to laugh at her before he stood up from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed and walked back over to his desk where his notebook was open. Lucy yawned and stretched before letting her bare feet onto the hardwood floor of the room. She hissed from the cold kissing her toes and retracted her legs.

Natsu turned around with a quirked brow as he asked, "Don't you have any slippers?"

Lucy shook her head before face palming herself for not getting a pair sooner.

"Here" Natsu said as he held out a pair of grey tube socks, "They have little pieces on the bottom that keep you from sliding in them, but they'll keep your feet warm inside."

Lucy smiled before pulling him down to her lips to kiss him as a thank you. The two of them stayed like that for a short while as Natsu slowly started to realize that all Lucy was wearing was her underwear with one of his t-shirts that was big on her. His shirt was like a flag on a conquered fortress, but the thing was he hadn't even breached the walls of that fortress yet. He had to pull himself back slightly in order to maintain his self control.

"You" Natsu laughed, "One moment you're verbally biting my head off and the next you're trying to bite me another way."

Lucy blushed before slapping his arm as he started walking back to the desk. The slap only made Natsu's laughter last longer as he sat down in his chair and was still chuckling to himself. A few minutes passed and Lucy put the socks on and took off the ridiculous and itchy hat. After shuffling through some dresser drawers for clothes she walked into his closet to change before walking back out in jeans and a flannel shirt.

"That's a little less distracting" Natsu commented on Lucy's appearance after she came back into his room.

The blond raised a brow at her not quite boyfriend before leaning her chest against his back and breathing into his ear, "Distracting? Whatever do you mean?"

"You savage" Natsu smirked before he turned his head to give her a quick kiss before turning back to his notebook.

"Watcha writing?" Lucy asked playfully as she continued to look over his shoulder.

"Music" he responded nonchalantly.

Lucy just sighed in defeat at his response before deciding to leave his room and make her way downstairs. She saw multiple cardboard boxes stacked up in the living room and looked at the boxes before looking at Gajeel for an explanation.

"Your crazy neighbors" he told Lucy without breaking eye contact with the TV, "They came over and dumped those boxes here saying we needed to decorate for Christmas. Something about Mavis."

"Mavis?!" Lucy asked with excitement in her voice before bolting out of the front door and running next door.

After almost breaking the girls' front door down, Lucy charged into the living room with excitement painted on her face at seeing them putting up trees, lights, wreaths, and ribbons around the house.

After catching her breath she asked, "Is it true? Mavis is coming here?"

The girls all looked at each other with smiles before Erza, "She's coming tonight to drop off our Christmas presents early. It seems she's going out of town for the holidays and she wants to make sure that we're settled in here."

"You mean, she wants to make sure that Makarov and Erik are staying true to their word?" She asked with a smile.

"Pretty much" Levy chimed in.

"Lend me a hand will you?" Mirajane grunted from up on a latter where she was putting up a wreath above the doorway to the kitchen.

Lucy ran over and steadied the ladder as Mira stood on her tip toes and hammered the nail into the wall to hang the holiday ornament nice and centered. After nodding a thanks to Lucy and handing her the hammer she climbed down the latter and clapped her hands together as if knocking off dirt or dust.

"Alright. Where are we putting the trees this year?" Mira asked Levy and Erza who were already decorating the one in the living room

"Trees? as in plural?!" Lucy asked in disbelief.

"Yea didn't you see the front yard?" Cana asked with a quirked brow.

Lucy turned around and looked out the front door to see three relatively large trees sitting in the front yard of the girls' house. She just stared open mouthed. She remembered in her shabby apartment how much of a stretch it was for her to buy one of those $20 table top trees that was the size of a gallon jug. Now she was starting at three full size trees that were at least six feet tall each.

"Who's paying for all of this?" Lucy asked with worry.

"Erik" Levy said calmly, "Apparently the boys two songs they put out on the radio are doing well and the record company is already making money. Erik gave Mira a company credit card to buy decorations and told her our max budget was one grand. So we got plenty of decorations with that."

"What about when Christmas is over?! Where are we going to put all of this?!" Lucy grabbed the sides of her head in panic.

Lucy wasn't always a worry wart, but her concern about the big picture won over living in the moment, and everyone had to laugh at her as Levy came over and put her hands on Lucy's arms to lower them before grabbing Lucy's hands.

"Don't worry" Levy laughed as she shook Lucy's hands, "This house's attic is completely empty. We'll have plenty of space for the Christmas decorations."

Lucy sighed slightly as her back hunched with relief and agitation. She was on edge. Excitement, anxiety, and stress all went hand and hand with the holiday season for her and she didn't understand what it felt like to have a care-free Christmas.

"Come decorate with us, and loosen up a little" Cana handed Lucy a steaming mug, "It's hot apple cider."

"Is this just cider?" Lucy asked with a skeptical face since it was Cana who handed it to her.

the brunette didn't reply but just gave Lucy a cheeky grin before laughing and skipping away to help Erza with the window stickers of snowflakes and snowmen. Lucy just shook her head before taking a test sip to see if she could taste any alcohol. To her relief there wasn't any in it, yet. After setting her mug down she helped Levy and finish the ornaments on the tree since Erza had abandoned it in pursuit of window stickers. After a few minutes the girls were all singing Christmas songs that were playing over the radio as they unpacked decorations galore. Lucy even ran up and down the stairs a few times to decorate the hallways on the second floor of the house.

* * *

"Holy shit" Natsu looked around the girls' house in astonishment after opening the front door.

"Looks like father Christmas got a hangover early this season and threw it up here" Gray cringed at all the cheery lights and decor strung up everywhere.

"Isn't it _beautiful_?!" Lucy cooed as she appeared from down the hallway spinning around in her socks.

"Did you walk over here in those?" Natsu asked her pointing to her feet.

Lucy scratched her head before shrugging, "I guess so."

"You don't run across the lawn in socks in the middle of December you idiot" Laxus growled from over Natsu's shoulder before walking into the house and standing by the doorway to the kitchen where he was sure to bump into Mira.

Natsu and Gray walked the rest of the way inside the house and sat on the sofa in the living room. Gajeel stood hesitantly in the doorway to the house not sure if he wanted to walk into the jaws of Christmas cheer.

"Gajeel" Levy groaned, "You're letting all the cold air in! Get in inside" she grabbed his forearms before she heard a voice shout behind her.

"Look up!" Cana belted with a shit eating grin.

Levy's face turned white as she looked up to see above the door was a sprig of mistletoe wrapped in a red ribbon. When she looked down and back at Gajeel her face was as red as the ribbon on the mistletoe. Gray and Natsu started hooting and chanting to try and egg on Gajeel into doing it. When he looked down and made eye contact with Levy though he felt like he was a wolf staring at rabbit who knew it was about to be his lunch.

"No!" Levy finally shrieked after a few moments of silence as she ran away back inside the house towards the fireplace and crossing her arms protectively while stealing glances at Gajeel.

"You're no fun" Cana growled, "Santa's going to put coal in your stocking for breaking the rules."

"What rules?! I never agreed to this!" Levy flung her arms around wildly before sitting down on the fireplace with a pout, "You're just a person with a sick sense of humor."

Cana laughed before she pointed at the silver haired girl in the dining room behind her still hanging decorations, "It was Yukino's idea. Blame her. She put it up there."

"Hey!" Yukino shouted from the room before walking up to Cana, "That wasn't meant for Levy. I was…." Yukino started blushing before finishing her sentence, "I was going to try and get Sting with it…"

Natsu and Gray gave out a low wolf whistled before cracking a joke to each other in hushed whispers causing Yukino to scowl at them with a tomato red face before stomping back to her decorations in the dining room.

"Perverts" Lucy scowled at the duo.

Natsu just sheepishly grinned with a chuckle before patting the legs of his lap at her with a face that guaranteed mischief. Lucy looked around the room frantically blushing then back at Natsu, silently implying that they were in front of everyone and she was too embarrassed. Natsu shrugged then bumped Gray over a bit and padded a small space for Lucy to sit next to him. She finally looked down at the floor trying to control her reddened face before she grabbed her hot mug and tiptoed over to the pinkette and sat next to him. She realized after sitting that the amount of space he gave her put her halfway onto his lap anyway, which she assumed was the reason he was smirking at her when she looked up at him with a pout.

"Save it, bedroom eyes" Gray scowled at Natsu before turning his glance to Lucy as well, "Couples are gross."

"We aren't a couple!" Lucy shouted with a furious blush which caused everyone else to pay more attention to the way she was sitting with Natsu than they had earlier.

"Then… what are you guys?" Cana asked trying to insight a riot.

Natsu scowled at her with a warning glance not to push the issue as Lucy stuttered, "I… I d-d-don't know y-yet…"

"It's ok" Mira tried to diffuse the situation as she came over to hand mugs of cider to Natsu and Gray, "It's the holiday season and everyone can use some love and cheer, right? No need make a big deal out of it. You two have been close since you met. I would be surprised if you didn't kiss and hug. I think whatever your relationship is with each other is wonderful if it makes you happy."

Lucy nodded reluctantly while still blushing and inwardly wanting to burry her face into Natsu's chest to hide her embarrassment. However she didn't want to make her situation worse since she realized the two of them were being analyzed now that attention was drawn to it. Natsu flashed Mira a painful smile as a thanks for trying to ease the tension. Against his better judgement Natsu leaned over and planted a small kiss on the side of Lucy's head, which made her twitch and then playfully slap at him.

"Hey now" he laughed, "It was just Christmas love and cheer alright" he joked with a wink that made Lucy's heart flip as well as her face go red once again.

"Then give me some Christmas cheer" Gray said with a sickening grin.

Natsu rolled his eyes before grumbling, "You just had to go and make it gay."

"Gray-sama is not gay!" Juvia said with a scowl as she stomped her foot like a child throwing a tantrum.

Gray and Natsu raised their eyes at her before Gray shrugged and sighed, "Natsu's always been jealous of me, so of course he would want me to be gay."

"You aren't exactly 'mr. steal yo girl' material ice tits" Natsu scowled.

"Oh really?" Gray said with a smirk, "Why don't we ask Lucy? Lucy, am I attractive enough to steal you?"

Lucy waved her hands frantically before stammering, "Don't you freaks drag me into your hetero-homo arguments I don't want to be the referee for that you guys sort it out yourself."

"You heard her" gray smirked, "She didn't say no."

"You put her on the hot seat" Natsu rolled his eyes, "Of course she wouldn't directly tell you no."

"Well she's on your hot seat, not mine" Gray said with a smirk looking at how Lucy was half on Natsu's lap next to him.

"Stop it" Laxus scowled at them, "It's bad enough when you argue about soda flavors. I don't want to hear your opinions on love and attraction."

"Sorry we can't all be stone cold cave men who fuck like animals off the national geographic channel" Gray quipped at Laxus who looked ready to kill.

"Enough!" Mira shouted as she walked out of the kitchen to stand in the middle of the living room between all of them, "This is Christmas, not Comedy Central's roast! While you are here you will act like civilized people! If I hear one more sexually insulting joke I will scald you with this fucking pot of cider!"

Everyone glanced at the crock pot in Mira's hands that she was holding with oven mitts. gray gulped slightly while Laxus stared at her with both admiration and fear that she would make good on her promise. Gajeel kept his silent streak up as he looked at the mad woman with slight fear.

"Soooo" Kagura broke the silence as she descended the rest of the way down the stairs, "Where are Sting and Rouge?"

"They're back at the house playing GTA 5" Natsu looked at her from around the tree, "You can go over there if you want, the front door should be unlocked and they're right there in the living room."

"Thanks" Kagura grunted before looking at Yukino with a nod for her to follow and turning on her heel to walk out of the house with the silver haired pixie trying to put on a jacket and follow behind her.

Kagura looked above her head with a scowl before reaching up and pulling off the taped up mistletoe, "Take this shit down" she seethed before throwing it at Gray's face.

"What a romantic" Gajeel scoffed after Kagura had closed the door behind her.

Gray spat out some of the plant that had made its way into his mouth upon impact before throwing it at Gajeel, "You should probably finish what you started with this thing."

"Quit it love Dr. She's already terrified of me" Gajeel chided him as he tucked the mistletoe into the pocket of his jacket and cast a sideways glance at Levy.

"Am not!" Levy growled with the grinchiest face she could muster.

All it did was earn her a cackle from Gajeel as he laughed and then smiled at her endearingly. Levy's scowl slowly melted and she looked away before she felt tempted to smile back at the pin cushion. Soon enough Erza had put stickers in every window, Mira had cooked enough food and warmed enough cider for everyone, Levy had hung every possible ornament on every tree, and all the wreaths were hung. The off kilter wreaths were Cana's fault.

"Don't drink and decorate" she teased with a smile as everyone grimaced at her work.

"Ready to do you guys' place next?" Mira asked Laxus with a smile.

Laxus blushed and scratched the back of his head as he said, "Sure. We haven't done anything yet though. Are you sure you want to do all this work tonight?"

"Well I already made drinks and food for us to eat while we decorate, and everyone seems to still have enough energy to keep going. Do you guys mind?"

"As long as you don't make me do anything ridiculous" he slightly scowled at her.

"Whatever do you mean?" Mira asked with a guilty smile, "You didn't tape mistletoe above your door too, did you?"

Laxus blushed at her provocative question before saying, "Of course not. I don't want to end up kissing one of those jerk offs over there. It's too dangerous to hang that shit."

Mira grabbed her stomach and genuinely laughed at Laxus's flustered answer. Everyone turned to look at the two of them and laughed from Mira's infectious cackling. It only made Laxus's blushing worse as he covered his face and growled for all of them to hurry up and get over to their house next door to finish so he could be done with the disgusting Christmas decorating.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **I hope you Gajevy people are satisfied. There's going to be even more saucy romance for them later on! ^(^0^)^**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"How are you going to get over there?" Natsu asked Lucy as she stood on the front porch of the girls' house in her socks he'd given her.

Lucy put her finger on her lip in thought before answering, I guess I'll walk down the drive way and use the sidewalk and walk back up the other drive to keep dirt from getting on the socks."

"I have a better idea" Natsu smirked as he crouched down to let Lucy crawl onto his back.

"I think you like this mode of transportation too much" Lucy smiled slightly as she leaned her head on Natsu's shoulder.

"I would like it more if you weren't so heavy" he teased.

Lucy shouted and slapped Natsu over the head as everyone laughed at them. The front door was open and everyone was pouring inside. Erza came over and turned the TV off, cutting off Sting and Rouge's highway heist of Grand Theft Auto immediately. The two boys groaned, but they just as scared of Erza as Gray and Natsu were so they decided not to protest. Kagura and Yukino hopped off the sofa and helped Mira carry the rest of the foot dishes inside and set them out buffet style on the kitchen counter and plugged the crockpot full of cider into the wall outlet.

"Let's get this started!" Levy cheered as she put a Michael Bublé CD into the player in the livingroom.

"No no no no" Natsu cringed, "You can't do that."

"Why the hell not?" Levy scowled at Natsu.

"Easy shrimp" Gajeel came up behind her to hold her arms against her sides so she didn't try to fight Natsu, "We might not look it, but we have our own Christmas traditions."

"Where is it?" Natsu looked around confused after pausing the Michael Bublé CD.

Gray jerked his head towards the hall closet outside the garage. Natsu then carried in a heft vinyl record player with a record under his arm. After setting the device down on the floor underneath the table that was holding up the CD player. He took the aux chord from the CD player and plugged it into the record player so the audio would come through the large speakers. After gently placing the record down Natsu moved the needle carefully onto it's spinning surface.

"Ah, now this is Christmas music I can stomach" Laxus sighed with slight relief.

Sting rolled his eyes before grumbling, "You really are an old fart."

"You wana repeat that?" He asked with a murderous smile after clutching Sting's head from behind.

Shivers shot up the smaller blonde's spine before vigorously shaking his head. Laxus grunted before letting go of his head and turning his attention back to everyone unpacking all the boxes in the living room. Natsu was dancing around the room while the girls all laughed at him and his invisible dance partner. After a few more giggles Natsu walked over to Lucy and held out his hand. Lucy shook her head, but after a few reassuring words and smile she melted and gave into him. After taking his hand he pulled her to him and floated around the room with her to Sinatra's Christmas Waltz. Lucy felt herself somehow get sucked into a bubble where only her and Natsu were dancing. Sting and Kagura weren't bickering, Gajeel wasn't breaking some of the ornaments by accidentally dropping them, Laxus wasn't sulking, and her friends weren't giggling at her. It was only her and this seemingly enchanting pink haired creature who had asked her to dance. That is, until the record player started sputtering and broke.

"Shit!" Natsu cursed as he let go of Lucy to run over and wave a few puffs a smoke away from the player as he quickly took the needle off the record.

"Is the album ok?" Gajeel asked with slight concern since he too enjoyed listening to the vinyl records at Christmas time.

Natsu flipped the disk around a bit and looked carefully over the ridges, "I don't see any scratches thankfully, but I guess this means the player's out of commission."

"Darn" Levy faked sighed, "I guess that means that we'll just have to put the CD back on and-"

"No" Gajeel cut her off, "I hear that Sinatra impersonating bastard almost everywhere I go out in public this time of year. Don't make me listen to it in my own home. I'll lose my mind."

Levy just crossed her arms and scowled at him, "Got any better ideas Iron-brows?"

"Cute" Gajeel snorted with a smirk at her new insult, "And yes, I do."

After jogging up the stairs Gajeel came back down with an acoustic guitar and held it out to Natsu, "Still remember those songs from last year."

"I think so" Natsu grabbed the guitar hesitantly as he sat down on the couch and checked the strings to make sure they were tuned just right.

He started strumming a beautiful melody (the song is "Christmas With You" by Artist vs Poet, all rights to the lyrics belong to them) that Lucy felt herself leaning towards the music, especially when he started singing.

 _Another year has passed up by_

 _It was gone in the blink of an eye_

 _We've got 15 bucks_

 _Seems we're down on our luck_

 _But who cares_

 _You're with me tonight_

 _This is our time now_

Gajeel and Gray were still unpacking the various ornaments out of the boxes for the girls to decide where to put them while everyone else stood or sat and listened to Natsu, enamored. Sting was sitting in an arm chair with Yukino in his lap, and at the romantic words Natsu was belting he gave her waist a playful squeeze. The gesture made her blush but she smiled, happy about how she felt. Kagura also felt a small blush grace her face as she boldly lifted her hand to grab Rouge's who was standing next to her. She felt and saw him stiffen, but he made no motion to pull away. The fact that he didn't push her away was enough to make her insides heat up from more than just warm cider.

 _When the fire burns out_

 _And it's only me and you_

 _Shimmery lights outside_

 _They reflect your eyes_

 _As you say "I love you too"_

 _When the sun comes up_

 _And the snow falls from the roof_

 _I can smile because I spent my Christmas with you_

Lucy slowly walked over to the backside of the sofa and wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck as she leaned her head against the side of his. As much as Natsu was slightly surprised and wanted so badly to turn his head to kiss her, he kept singing. Laxus even seemed to be listening intently with the mood in the room being centered on Natsu.

 _All the shops are closed_

 _Busy streets never felt more alone_

 _Everyone around in this crazy-ass town_

 _So ready to finally be home_

 _So I'll sit by the fire_

 _Watching re-runs and making you smile_

 _Sharing cookies you burnt_

 _You spilled milk on my shirt_

 _That's ok_

 _You're with me tonight_

 _This is our time now_

 _There's no need to worry 'cause_

 _When the fire burns out_

 _And it's only me and you_

 _Shimmery lights outside_

 _They reflect your eyes_

 _As you say "I love you too"_

 _When the sun comes up_

 _and the snow falls from the roof_

 _I can smile because I spent my Christmas with you_

Gajeel and Gray had finished tossing various decor out of the boxes and decided to let Natsu finish his song before stirring things up and getting everyone to decorate. Erza and Cana were both engrossed in the sound of Natsu's passionate words. Mira had heard this song played before by another band, so she assumed Natsu didn't write it, but his acoustic cover of it was beautiful none the less. It was so beautiful that she almost didn't notice a certain blond gorilla sneak behind her until she shifted her weight backwards and leaned into him. She almost jumped except he didn't step away from her. She decided to test her luck and leaned until he was holding up almost all her body weight she had pressed against him. Laxus was tempted to move and let the silver haired temptress fall to the floor, but the more compassionate side of him decided to let her revel in the momentary affection he was giving her indirectly, if only for a few moments. She seemed to have that affect on him, ever compromising, and becoming soft inside. It made him disgusted and happy at the same time.

 _With you_

 _Wanna be with you_

 _with you_

 _I wanna be with you_

 _I wanna be with you_

 _When the fire burns out_

 _And it's only me and you_

 _Shimmery lights outside_

 _They reflect your eyes_

 _As you say "I love you too"_

 _When the sun comes up_

 _And the snow falls from the roof_

 _I can smile because I spent my Christmas with you._

Natsu strummed a little while longer while humming before playing one last chord and stopping to look up at everyone with slight surprise. He didn't mean to set such a mushy mood with his song, but it wasn' the worst thing. He just gave everyone shit eating smirks at subtle PDA that was happening. However the peaceful romantic moment was short lived when the door was suddenly kicked in with a three foot nothing blond fairy standing in the doorway. The look Mavis gave everyone gave the appearance that she missed nothing, and took in every single person and saw their flirting simultaneously with a knowing grin.

"Mavis!" All the girls shouted as they scurried over to their former employer, forgetting their romantic pursuits from two minutes ago.

All the men looked questioningly and slightly confused at the short woman with blond wavy hair as she stood on her tiptoes to hug each of the girls. Her little Santa hat and dress looked both ridiculous and cute at the same time. If it weren't for her makeup they would've mistook her for a middle school Christmas caroler.

"How have you all been?" Mavis asked with a cheery smile before reaching back outside next to the door frame, lugging a large bag inside the house.

"Oh my goodness!" Mira called out as she walked around next to Mavis and tried to help with the bag, "Actually all of us girls live next door, Erza will help me take these over there to put under our tree."

"Of course" Erza said as she scooted out the door right behind Mira.

After the two girls had taken the large red sack from Mavis they closed the front door to the house as she looked around at all the men with a suspicious glare, "I'm watching all of you" she said as menacingly as a 4 foot nothing blond barbie doll could.

All of the boys looked around at each other with sheepish smirks before taking turns shrugging like they didn't know what Mavis was talking about.

"I saw her sitting in you lap" Mavis further clarified as she targeted Sting, "Don't think I didn't notice the rest of you either."

The men went from shrugging to looking at each other like pigs being fattened for the slaughter, except for Gray. He seemed to be sure enough of himself and Juvia's non existent relationship that he wasn't worried about anything Mavis was saying. After they got Mavis inside and handed her a warm cup of cider Erza and Mira came back inside huffing and puffing from the cold and heavy lifting.

"Alright let's get this started!" Erza said with a triumphant smile as she reached for a box of ribbons she began pinning on the banisters of the stair case.

Gray picked up a box of fake electric battery powered candles to put in each window frame, Juvia right on his heels. Gajeel picked up a box of tree ornaments and almost dropped the box to the floor from chest height after carrying it over until Levy shouted at him.

"No!" She squeaked, "You'll break all of them if you do that!"

"Then are you going to help me with these?" Gajeel asked with a teasing smirk.

Levy scowled, "Obviously, since you can't do it yourself without breaking more of them."

Gajeel didn't answer her but gave her a sultry smile that reminded her of a predator, but some how she still saw him as a teddy bear on the inside, despite his sharp edges on the outside. Once she thought of sharp edges she started thinking about the sharp detail in his muscles and the way his biceps and flexed underneath his short sleeve shirt. Her eyes drifted down the side of his body, where his shirt just barely lifted up to reveal his abs that Levy found her self somehow staring at.

"Oi" Gajeel laughed at her, "Up here" he said pointing to his face with a knowing smirk.

Levy just made a "Tch" noise before busying herself with the ornaments, trying not to steal glances at the pin cushion beside her.

"Want to be on kitchen detail?" Mira asked with a smile knowing full well Laxus didn't want to.

"Sure" he sighed, "Anywhere away from these idiots."

"I heard that!" Gray yelled from the opposite side of the living room.

"Good!" Laxus shouted back before he and Mira disappeared inside the kitchen.

Mira set a cardboard box down and took out a few small wreaths and some tinsel before she set about trying to string the tinsel up above the cabinets. She was too short so she started to climb onto the counter.

"Woah there" Laxus tried to stop her as he quickly walked over hovering his hands behind her back nervous that she would fall, "I'm not sure that's a good idea, you want me to get a ladder?"

"Nah" Mira shook her head, "I did the tinsel at our house this way too."

"You're crazy" Laxus told her with a grunt, "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Not with you here" she smiled over her shoulder at him.

Laxus waited until she turned back around to let a small blush make it's way onto his face. He followed behind her as she scooted across the counter pinning the tinsel up. He was especially nervous as she was standing on the small 1 inch ledge of the sing, and sure enough in her ridiculous Christmas socks she lost her traction and slid, but luckily Laxus was right behind her. His hands braced against her back, but embarrassingly enough, her butt smashed right into his face. Instead of apologizing profusely or being embarrassed, Mira laughed. Laxus wasn't sure what it was about her smile or her laugh, but he found himself chuckling too as he pushed her back up and firmly held her hips for the rest of the time she was standing on the rim of the sink.

"I owe you one, booty catcher" Mira teased him without turning around as she finished up the last of the tinsel.

"Don't call me that" Laxus slightly scowled at her with his own embarrassment.

He wouldn't deny that he was an ass-man, and the face-full he got was enough to persuade him that Mira was indeed a well endowed woman down under. This didn't help since he already felt as if he liked her too much for his own good. He was slowly becoming a different person with her around.

"Fine. Butt face" Mira laughed then turned around and stuck her tongue out at him before she jumped down from the counter with Laxus still gripping her hips.

"Don't stick your tongue out at me either" Laxus warned.

"Or what?" Mira asked with a defiant smile.

Laxus smirked before he said, "Or I'll put it back."

"Oh?" Mira asked dangerously before sticking her tongue out at him again, blowing raspberries.

"I warned you" Laxus growled before he smashed his lips against hers.

He wanted this for so long. Mira hungrily accepted his kiss as she snaked her arms around his neck and let him dip her backwards as he leaned downwards, gripping the back of her head.

After parting for air and both of them breathing heavily Mira smiled, "It took you long enough."

Laxus smirked at her before hoisting her up on the counter, "I'm not done yet."

Mira smiled and giggled against his lips as he continued to kiss her. Her mouth, her cheek, her neck, Laxus worked his way around her face and neck, but always found his way back to her luscious lips. The only thing that would make this better is if they had more privacy.

"Oh my god!" Juvia shrieked as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Goddamnit" Laxus hissed as he turned around to give the bluenette a glare that would make hell freeze over.

"What?" Natsu immediately asked and turned his head along with Sting and Rouge to look towards the kitchen doorway where Juvia was running away from with her hands covering her face.

A few moments later the guilty culprits emerged from the kitchen trying to feign ignorance as Laxus reached for another box to carry to another room to decorate.

"Hold on a minute" Gray looked at a red faced Juvia before turning his attention back to Mira and Laxus, "What the hell did she see in there?" Gray asked with a scowl pointing at the girl beside him.

"Dunno" Laxus grunted.

"Ooooooh ho ho ho no" Kagura laughed, "You did _not_ " she added as she smirked at Mira.

Mira blushed slightly as she scratched the back of her head, "I don't know what you mean Kagura."

"Is that a hickie?" Cana came up next to the silver haired girl as she pointed to the small purple mark on her neck, "I think I see teeth outlines."

"Stop that!" Mira chided Cana as she slapped her hand away, "I just feel while I was putting up tinsel in the kitchen. I didn't think it'd bruise already."

It wasn't a total lie, but she didn't hit her head, or her neck.

"Yup. Teeth marks." Cana said as she took another swig from her cider that every suspected she'd spiked.

Natsu took a moment with everyone to look silently at the two of them before busting out into fits of laughter with Gray and Gajeel following behind. After scowling at all of them, Laxus turned on his heel and walked back into the kitchen. The others just kept giggling. Natsu plopped himself back down on the sofa and started strumming again.

(Song is "12 Days of a Punk-Pop Christmas" by Jarrod Alonge, all rights go to him) "I got it!" he said suddenly as he started strumming on the guitar, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a pair of skinny kakis~"

"Oh no" Gajeel laughed.

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Two snap back hats, and a pair of skinny khakis."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at Natsu's farce of the 12 days of Christmas. Gray was smirking and she could tell that Gajeel and Levy were throughly entertained. The only person who didn't seem enthused was Erza. She appeared to be a traditionalist and didn't like Natsu's modern adaptation.

"On the Fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Fiiiiive laaaaaarge piiiiiizzaaaaaaaas."

At this Lucy was gripping her stomach all out laughing at Natsu. Levy had stopped hanging ornaments to wipe tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes from cackling. Gray and Juvia were still hanging window candles, but they were distracted with occasional snorts of laughter at Natsu's lyrics.

"On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine cardboard signs, eight tumblr notes, seven vinyl records, six flannel shirts, five large pizzas, four pairs of vans, three peace teas, two snap back hats, and my parents understanding."

"Now that's a sick sense of humor" Rouge chimed in at the parent lyric slightly laughing since they were all pretty much abandoned street rats.

"For fuck's sake sing it right!" Laxus came back out of the kitchen with a scowl.

Natsu had stopped playing and started chuckling before waving his hand at Laxus, "fine fine I'll play something else."

"Awwww" Lucy moaned wiping tears from the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard, "You'll have to finish that one for me later."

Natsu just smiled at her with a nod before he started strumming the next song. ("Christmas Lights" by Yellowcard) Lucy suddenly turned around with a surprised expression.

"I love this song!" She gasped. Natsu made a nodding gesture for her to come sit beside him while he kept playing.

After singing the intro with Lucy humming along they both sand the next part together.

 _Those Christmas lights_

 _Light up the street,_

 _Down where the sea and city meet._

 _May all your troubles soon be gone._

 _Oh Christmas lights keep shining on._

Gray and Juvia had finished with the electric candles and moved on to hanging up the stockings on the fireplace mantle. Juvia placed all the weighted holders on top of the mantle while Gray hung all the stockings. After that Gray wasn't sure exactly what to do so he stood in the middle of the living room and listened to Natsu play.

Juvia tried to clear her throat to get Gray's attention and once he was looking at her asked, "Would Gray-sama like to decorate outside with Juvia?"

Gray raised a brow at her before asking, "It's not too cold outside for you?"

Juvia shook her head knowing that Gray loved the cold and it never bothered him. She figured that since he seemed to feel stuffed up inside he might like a break decorating outside.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

Please leave a review guys! I hope you're loving this Christmas excitement as much as I am! More to come! ^(^0^)^


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Juvia had went with Gray outside to decorate the hedges in front of their house and put up a few plastic snowmen along the walkway to the front door. Juvia was frustratingly trying to untangle the 100ft stream of Christmas lights to string around the bushes, but eventually the Christmas lights won.

"Juvia?" Gray looked over his shoulder trying not to laugh at her, "You need some help?"

"Sorry Gray-sama" Juvia sighed as she looked down at the ground in defeat.

Gray just waved a hand as he wore a smirk while untangling the bluenette from the wirey jaws of Christmas. Accidentally Gray had tugged on the wire too hard and ended up causing Juvia to fall forward into his chest. Juvia grabbed on to Gray's bare arms to brace herself from falling completely. After stumbling backwards one step, Gray looked down at the blushing bluenette and immediately tried to divert his eyes from her cleavage smashed against his chest.

"Are you ok?" He asked looking away from her, trying not the blush as well.

"I… I think so…" Juvia stammered.

"Good" Gray grunted before pushing her forward so Juvia was standing up strait again and retracting his arms.

Even though Gray was the only one who could wear a sleeveless shirt in December outside, Juvia thought he felt really warm. That or his touch was what made her skin heat up the way it did just then. She was completely distracted the whole time and Gray ended up having to fix her mess of a light-job on the bushes.

"Juvia!" Levy popped her head out of the door, "Mavis is gunna sing the song!"

"What?" Juvia asked a little confused.

"The one we usually sing her her place for Christmas! Lucy's gunna use the guitar!" Levy shouted at her down the front porch before disappearing back inside and closing the door.

"You guys have a lot of Christmas traditions" Gray gave Juvia a sideways glance.

Juvia scratched her face a little before answering Gray's unasked question, "Well none of us have family that we really talk to besides Yukino and Mira, so we made our own traditions together."

Gray just nodded before he stood up from where he was kneeling at the bottom of the last bush he was putting the lights in. After dusting off his hands he walked towards the front door of the house without looking back at Juvia.

"Wait!" Juvia called out before he'd made the first step of the porch stairs.

Gray didn't say anything but turned around with raised brows that were asking a silent question.

"Uh…" Juvia froze with a blush on her face, "Would Gray-sama…" she trailed off.

"Yes?" Gray asked questioningly, trying to get her speak up, "What do you want?"

"You…" Juvia mumbled under her breath, but Gray didn't miss a beat when he heard it.

Gray just blushed then slapped his face. He knew this was coming. Juvia was blatantly obvious with her attraction to him and everyone including Gray knew about it. Gray was just trying to put it off for as long as humanly possible since he didn't feel like he was good in relationships, and he also wasn't completely over his ex, Ultear.

"Juvia…" Gray said softly as he walked towards her as she was on the brink of tears, "Can you give me some more time?" Gray asked softly in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her in a caring embrace.

Juvia froze for a moment in surprise before she lifted her arms to reciprocate the hug. After a few more seconds Gray heard a shout behind them.

"Gross!" Natsu shouted from the doorway, "You coming back in or are you two doing it in the grass?"

"Natsu!" Gray heard Lucy yell from behind him before she appeared next to him and punched him on top of the head.

After everyone had come back inside, Gajeel handed Lucy the guitar after she'd sat down on the couch. After strumming the familiar chords all the girls started singing the intro. (Wintersong by Sarabareilles and Ingrid Michaelson. All rights to the lyrics belong to them)

 _bum bum bum bum_

 _bum bum bum bum_

 _bum bum bum bum bum bum_

 _bum bum bum bum bum bum_

Mavis started singing the first verse as she stepped towards Lucy and sat on the arm rest of the sofa beside her.

 _This is my winter song to you_

 _The storm is coming soon_

 _It rolls in from the sea_

Mira sang next as she walked away from where Laxus was standing in the door. Laxus was already bewitched by her, but after hearing her voice he felt entranced.

 _My voice a beacon in the night_

 _My words will be your light_

 _To carry you to me_

After finishing her verse Mira grabbed Mavis hand in her own as the two of them sang:

 _is love alive?_

 _is love alive?_

 _is love..._

Levy sang the next verse as she walked towards Mira with a smile, clasping the silver haired woman's hand as she finished singing:

 _They say that things just cannot grow_

 _Beneath the winter snow_

 _Or so I have been told_

Erza was next as she walked towards the middle of the room, continuing the chain by clasping Levy's hand.

 _They say were buried in fall_

 _Just like a distant star_

 _I simply cannot hold_

As they started singing the bridge to the song Cana joined in all of them harmonizing as she walked over to grab Erza's hand.

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

Lucy and Mavis song the chorus as the rest of them harmonized singing "ooo's" to the musical notes Lucy was playing on her guitar, everyone joining in on the last line of the chorus singing together.

 _This is my wintersong_

 _December never felt so wrong_

 _Cause you're not where you belong,_

 _Inside my arms._

After watching long enough, Yukino and Kagura grabbed each other's hand and walked towards the circle as they sang the next verse together, Kagura grabbing onto Cana's hand as Levy tried to gesture at Juvia to join while the shy bluenette shook her head blushing.

 _I still believe in summer days_

 _The seasons always change_

 _and life will find a way_

After dropping out for a moment, everyone let Juvia sing by herself as she walked towards Yukino's outstretched hand.

 _I will be your harvester of light_

 _and send it out tonight_

 _so we can start again_

All the girls sang the bridge and together as they harmonized.

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

Lucy sang the chorus by herself as everyone else harmonized behind her with "ooo's" again, coming in on the last line of "inside my arms."

 _This is my wintersong_

 _December never felt so wrong_

 _Cause you're not where you belong_

 _Inside my arms._

After singing the chorus by herself, everyone sang the first two verses from the beginning of the song again together.

 _This is my wintersong to you_

 _the storm is coming soon_

 _it rolls in from the sea_

 _my love a beacon in the night_

 _my words will your light_

 _to carry you to me_

All of them harmonized beautifully and swayed together holding hands as Juvia closed the circle by grabbing Mavis's hand, the circle they created encompassed a large portion of the living room floor between the sofa and the Christmas tree.

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

Lucy stopped playing the guitar and set it down on the sofa as she stood up and joined the circle as they sang the last four lines of the song acapella.

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

 _Is love alive?_

After finishing they all looked around at each other with big grins before trying to squish the circle together in a giant group hug as they laughed and fell over each other in cheers and laughter.

"If we keep doing this we're never going to finish decorating" Laxus grunted at the girls' antics and constant songs being played that seemed to distract everyone.

"Relax" Mira came over and put a hand on his arm with a smile, "We're having fun. You should try it."

Laxus just rolled his eyes with a "tch." Before pushing himself off of the wall that he was leaning against to collapse all the empty boxes that previously had Christmas decorations in them before moving them into the garage.

* * *

After decorating and watching a hallmark re-run of "Miracle on 34th Street" Natsu looked around to see limp bodies everywhere. Sting and Yukino were leaning against each other on the smaller sofa, both of their eyes closed, breathing deeply. Rouge was asleep in one of the arm chairs with Kagura leaning against the chair at his feet on the floor. Her head was reclined against his lap with her eyes closed. Gajeel was awake in the other arm chair, but Levy was asleep on the floor in front of him in much the same way Kagura was. Mira and Laxus were awake and sitting in wooden chairs they'd brought in from the kitchen, sitting next to each other. Mavis was curled up by the sofa at Natsu's feet while Lucy was curled up in his lap muttering gibberish in her sleep. Cana popped her head out of the kitchen to see the rolling credits of the movie. After taking a peek at the clock that read "1:35am" Cana decided to flip the living room light switch on and wake the people up who were sleeping, which was over half the group.

"C'mon Luce" Natsu whispered in her ear as he shook her shoulder to try and get her moving.

"No" she grumbled without opening her eyes.

"Don't make me embarrass you" Natsu said with a smirk hoping she would jump to her feet and take herself up the stairs.

"Looks like I get a bedtime workout" Natsu groaned in slight frustration before turning Lucy so her legs were straddling his hips and her arms were slung over his shoulders. After lifting her he put his forearms under her backside to support her weight before making his way up the stairs after he'd said goodnight to everyone else.

"Bet he was hoping for a different bedtime workout" Gray smirked to himself as he watched Juvia blush at his comment.

"Would you stop it already" Mira scowled at him, "You're one to talk y'know."

"What?" Gray scoffed, "Unlike the rest of you I'm not paired at the hip to anyone."

Juvia looked over at Gray with a slightly hurt expression before turning her eyes downward in disappointment. It didn't escape Gray's peripheral vision and he felt a small pang of guilt.

"Yet" gray added with a shrug, hoping that it made Juvia feel a little better.

Juvia only looked up at him with a slightly less sad expression before she stood up to leave with the rest of the girls as they walked back to their house next door.

"Why is Natsu the only one who gets to keep a girl in his room?" Sting pouted after giving Yukino a goodbye kiss and watching her walk out the front door.

"Because you share that room with me" Rouge commented, "And I don't want to hear you two doing it while I'm trying to sleep."

"Well we don't have to do that" Sting grumbled with a scowl.

"Yea" Rouge scoffed, "But then you'll stay up and have pillow talk that I'll get to overhear for hours."

Sting blushed at how Rouge was hitting the head on the nail about Sting's habits.

* * *

"Alright from the top again" Levy said through her control room microphone that played into Gajeel's recording room. He sat there with his guitar and inwardly groaned before asking grouchily, "Why?"

"You tripped up on the end of the riff after verse two that leads into the bridge with power chords. That transition needs to be smooth" Levy scowled at him.

The girls had eventually gotten the hang of listening to the boys' musical parts and knowing what was and wasn't acceptable for recording. Erik found it super efficient that the girls were able to individually manage and record the boys' audio soundtracks for the CD.

"Then can I start from the beginning of verse two?" Gajeel asked with a defeated expression.

"No" Levy scowled at him, "There's no pause in your playing from the beginning of the song until after the bridge, if you started at verse two your playing would sound choppy if we used more than one recording for it."

"Fine" Gajeel groaned as he retuned his strings and fixed his posture on the stool he was using to sit.

Levy crossed her arms at his fidgeting, "We don't have all day" she snipped at him, "We need to be back in the main room in about fifteen minutes for Erik to hear you guys play as a group."

"I know shortie" Gajeel scowled back at her, "Cut me some slack. Last night was a late night for me and I didn't get a lot of sleep."

"Why didn't you sleep?" Levy asked for no particular reason other than conversation.

Gajeel gave her a playful smirk as he said, "Cause I was thinking about you."

"Stop that" Levy tried to scowl at him, but ended up making a ridiculous face between anger and embarrassment.

Gajeel chuckled, "gihihihi" before turning the volume on his guitar back up and playing the song from the beginning.

Thankfully he only had to play it one more time before Levy sorted the different play throughs onto a flash drive and then they walked back into the main recording room. After handing the flash drive to Makarov who was sitting at the main control board for the large room with Cana, Levy went and sat down next to Kagura who was filing her nails.

"I bet you and Rouge don't take that long to record, do you?" Levy sighed with annoyance at how long it took Gajeel.

Kagura laughed at her before asking, "Trouble in paradise?"

"It's never been paradise, you know that" Levy growled at her with a weary expression.

Lucy plopped down next to them with an equally agitated attitude as she looked at Levy with a smile, "At least you beat Natsu today."

Levy laughed, "Yea I guess it could be worse."

"At least Gajeel isn't flirting with you the whole fucking time you're trying to record" Lucy half laughed half sighed in frustration.

Levy didn't answer, but let a small blush make it's way onto her face at the mention of flirting, remembering Gajeel's smirk and suave words.

 _Cause I was thinking about you._

Levy slapped her face causing Kagura and Lucy to look at her with mild concern. Before waving it off and claiming she was fine, they all watched the boys record their newest song. They only had to make and record two more songs until they could release their first full album for the first tour that would start in summer.

"Oh" Erik turned to face Erza who was standing against the wall, "The president wants to see you, his office is on the fifteenth floor. Elevator is down the hall."

"Why?" Erza asked, a little nervous since she hadn't seen or heard from Jellal since their trip to the Maldives over a month ago.

"Beats me" Erik shrugged, "But I suggest you go see him."

Erza nodded before giving a look at Cana who winked at her to wish her luck before she walked out of the room to make her way onto the elevator that was just down the hall as Erik said. After stepping in side and pressing the button for the fifteenth floor she closed her eyes and dreaded every floor she passed that led her closer to Jellal. After the ding sounded Erza thought her heard would explode.

"Meledy?" Erza asked in shock as she stepped out of the elevator to approach the reception desk directly in front of her.

"The one and only" she smiled at Erza, "How ya been?"

"I'm… I've… I've been fine" Erza stammered.

It seemed she was running into a lot of people form her past lately and she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it.

"I'll let him know you're here" Meledy smiled while punching in a few numbers on her phone and speaking into the mouth piece quietly and nodding.

"It'll be just a few minutes" she said after hanging up the phone, "But the kureig is right over there if you want some coffee. Just take a seat and he'll be ready for you shortly."

Erza nodded before taking a pass on the coffee and opting to just sit on the sofa instead. After a few more minutes there was a buzzing sound by the door before it clicked open and a man was shaking Jellal's hand before he turned around to exit the lobby and go down the elevator.

After the man was gone, Jellal peeked his head the rest of the way out of the doorway with a smile, "Come on back."

Erza stood and walked through the door and down a hall with another office door at the end. There was a gold plaque on the door that had Jellal's title of president on it as well as his name. After opening the door for Erza and letting her walk inside first, Jellal closed it behind him before going over to his desk and leaning his weight against it but not sitting down. Erza awkwardly stood and looked around slightly panicked. He hadn't sat down so she didn't want to sit and look rude, but standing was also just as awkward.

"So" Jellal said with a relaxed tone as he picked up a glass of water on his desk and took a swig.

Before he could start speaking again Erza bowed and then almost shouted, "I'm sorry!"

"What?" Jellal asked both confused and amused.

Erza raised herself back upright before rubbing her arms as she said, "I'm not sure if I did anything to offend you or make you mad, please don't fire me."

"That's what you think?" Jellal practically laughed, "That's not at all why I called you up here."

"Then…" Erza trailed off as she became completely lost at what this could be about.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to get coffee some time, catch up. I don' think we really talked much at the resort." Jellal tried to smile but he was obviously nervous for Erza's answer.

"Uh… I uh… I mean…" she struggled to answer.

"You don't have to" Jellal tried to soften the blow he thought she was about to deal him.

"Well" Erza finally said, "I don't really like coffee."

"Oh" Jellal said, "Is there something else you like then?"

"Well, I've wanted to go ice skating, but haven't gotten to this year…" Erza grumbled while twiddling her fingers.

"I'll take you then" Jellal said with a grin, "But don't get mad when I skate faster that you."

"You'll eat my ice shavings!" Erza bellowed back at the challenge before quickly realizing who she was talking to and covering her mouth in embarassment, "Sorry… I…"

Jellal let out a bellowing laugh as he hunched over a little, "No really. It's fine. It's good to see you acting a little more like yourself."

Erza just nervously smiled before Jellal held his phone out to her, "Mind putting your number in here. I'll try to get in touch with you about a date and time for ice skating."

"Date…" Erza repeated with a blush as she took his phone in her hands.

Jellal tried to defensively wave his hands in front of her, "J-just two friend c-catching up. A calendar date, not a d-date date" he choked on his words as he stumbled to finish his sentence.

Erza nodded frantically as she started blushing along with him before handing back his phone wither number now placed in it. After pausing a few moments, Erza's phone dinged with a new text message.

"Now you have my number too" Jellal smiled sheepishly, "Let me know when you're able to go, ok?"

Erza nodded before she backed out of his office with her head still reeling. Was she going on a date with the company president? Or was it just a weird coincidence that her childhood friend was running the business she worked for? Either way she felt her heart slamming into her ribs until she had made it back inside the elevator to head back to the studio room. After walking back inside the studio room she was greeted by the Spanish inquisition.

"Were you in trouble?" Yukino asked worriedly.

"What did he want?" Mira asked skeptically.

Levy scratched her face before asking, "Why did he want to talk to you?"

Erza just slapped a hand over her face waiting for them all to shut up before she finally spoke, "He just wanted to chat."

"Pfffffft!" Cana spat before she turned with a smirk, "He was smitten wasn't he?"

"What?!" Erza asked with a blush.

"What do you mean?" Mira looked to Cana with a questioning glance.

"You guys didn't know?" Cana smirked, "Erza was childhood friends with the company president."

"Way to get in good with the company" Kagura remarked smugly.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" Yukino gasped.

After a few more small quibbling responses to Cana's explanation of Erza's past relationship to the president, Erza held up her hand in order to shush the squawking girls.

"He didn't want anything!" Erza almost screeched, "He just wanted to talk and catch up since it's been over a decade since we last saw each other."

"Ooooooo" Cana went half lidded with a knowing smirk, "He wants to tap that."

"Shut up!" Erza yelled while everyone snickered to themselves until the boys finished recording in the main room together.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Still have a few more Christmas chapters in store! Enjoy the fluff! :D**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Woooo!" Natsu shouted as he jumped down the from the top of the front stairs of the studio.

Gray just rolled his eyes at Natsu's boundless energy before turning to Laxus and Gajeel, "Food?"

"Food!" Natsu practically screeched.

"Ugh" Laxus groaned as he pinched the skin between his eyes, "You guys do what you want, but I'm going home."

Gray just raised his brows a bit at Laxus's bad mood. During practice he seemed out of it and sluggish. He doubted that it had anything to do with Mira the other night since something like that would've put him in a much better mood.

"I'll make sure he gets home" Mira laughed nervously as she cantered quickly to catch up to Laxus as he was about to cross the street.

"The rest of you?" Gray asked as he turned to look at everyone else.

Levy and Gajeel shrugged while Kagura and Yukino said they were going home. At that response, Sting and Rouge immediately followed them as they too set off towards the house behind Laxus.

"I'm starving!" Natsu roared.

"Pizza?" Lucy suggested.

"Oh yea!" Natsu remembered, "Didn't you used to work for Wakaba's? We can go there. I'm sure he'd love to see you."

Lucy smiled up at him with a nod as they turned to face the remaining group for confirmation.

"No can do" Cana smirked, "Got myself a hot date tonight."

"And you were giving me shit" Erza snorted under her breath.

Cana gave Erza's shoulder a slap, "Have fun for both of us" she laughed before walking down the street away from them.

"Don't call me to drag your drunk ass home!" Erza yelled at her, angry that Cana had ditched her without letting her know the reason until the last second.

After a few moments of overall silence, excluding Natsu rambling to Lucy, they arrived at Wakaba's. Gray held the door open for everyone as they shuffled inside.

"Gray-sama is such a gentleman!" Juvia cooed as she shuffled in last with Gray coming inside behind her.

"Howdy, what can I—" Wakaba began to say before he saw the blond, "Lucy! How ya been girl! It's been a while!"

"Couple of months" Lucy smiled.

"Didn't come to take your delivery job back did you? Just gave it to a friend of mine's son, Romeo."

"No" Lucy waved her hand and laughed, "It seems that everyone's in the mood for pizza so we thought we'd stop by."

"Well you came to the right place then, in or out?" Wakaba asked.

"In" Gray sighed, "I don't want to wait to eat until we walk all the way home and let the pizza get cold."

"Whaddya have?" Waka took the pencil from behind his ear as he grabbed a notepad.

"Do you guys still do the philly cheese steak thing?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

"Pan crust or regular?"

"Pan" Lucy drooled.

The more bread the better as far as Lucy was concerned. Wakaba's pan pizzas also tended to be moist and not as dry as other pizza places that let it burn on the outside and left it almost raw on the inside.

"Anything else?"

"Large pineapple and ham pizza" Gajeel grunted

"Hawaiian" Wakaba muttered to himself as he jotted down the order.

"Pineapple does _not_ go on pizza" Levy scowled as she crossed her arms.

Gajeel smirked down at here before messing up her hair with a nuggie as he said, "Pineapple goes on whatever the hell I want it to."

"That it?" Wakaba asked.

Natsu scratched his chin before ordering one large meat lovers pizza. Erza, Levy, Juvia, and Gray shook their heads, implying they didn't want to order anything else. After Wakaba nodded and headed back into the kitchen to get the orders started they all had a seat in the dining room at a large circular booth table. After a few moments, Wakaba carried out some pizza stands for the metal trays to rest on before carrying out the pies themselves. After setting them down on the table Natsu had to keep himself from drooling.

"Dig in!" Wakaba called out over his shoulder before walking back to the kitchen.

"Don't mind if I do" Natsu smirked before grabbing two slices of the meat lovers pizza and nabbing a slice of the philly cheese steak as well.

"Hey!" Lucy pouted at him, "You got that meat lovers for yourself didn't you?"

"Nah" Natsu smiled, "I was planning on eating a chunk of all the pizzas."

Gray rolled his eyes before snagging a slice of the philly cheese steak pizza and handing it to Juvia. Juvia held the slice of pizza in slight amazement.

"How did Gray-sama know this is what Juvia wanted?"

"When you're drooling and staring at something it's hard to miss" Gray looked at her with a slight smirk.

Juvia blushed slightly at how everyone seemed to be able to read her like a book. After taking a few bites she had forgotten about her embarrassment and was reveling in the cheese sauce and steak on the delicious pizza.

Levy made a noise of disgust as Gajeel put a slice of the pineapple pizza on his plate, "Pineapple is _not_ a pizza topping."

"Have you even tried it?" Gajeel asked her with a scowl.

"No—" Levy said and right after the words left her mouth Gajeel stuffed the slice in her mouth, almost making her choke on it until she chewed.

He noticed her pause for a few seconds before slowly chewing again and then looking over at him scowling as she swallowed. After she lifted the pizza to her mouth again on her own free will Gajeel smiled and laughed as she continued to scowl at him.

"You're crabby when you're hungry" he commented as he took a bite of his own slice of pizza.

"Shut up" Levy pouted as she looked at the pizza slice, disgusted with herself for liking it.

* * *

"Well well well" Bacchus said as he leaned up against the bar counter, "Look what the cat drug in."

"Thanks" Cana said with a sarcastic voice as she half smiled at Bacchus.

Bacchus pulled a barstool chair out for Cana and then one for himself after she was seated. The bartender came over and got Cana a glass of strait bourbon before she turned to look at Bacchus with a blank stare.

"So" Bacchus said trying to break the ice, "Why did you come to the studio?"

"Is this what small talk is?" Cana asked rhetorically.

Bacchus tried not to laugh and gave her a weary expression, "Is this was a failed attempt looks like?"

"Not yet" Cana smirked, "Gotta keep going though."

"Well, who are you then?" Bacchus said, "If you want to start talking about deep shit, who are you as a person?"

"That's more like it" Cana purred as she took a sip of her liquor, "Former strip club manager, alcohol aficionado, part time human being, and full time smart-ass."

"Well then" Bacchus snorted with amusement, "I guess that makes me boring."

"How so?" Cana asked as she rested her chin on the back of her hand, gesturing that she was interested.

After chugging the last half of his beer, Bacchus wiped the beer foam from his lips before answering, "Born and raised here in Magnolia, body building enthusiast, tech school graduate, and best keg stand chugger."

"Seems acceptable" Cana smiled, "At least you aren't some boring accountant whose most exciting life experience is writing with an erasable pen."

"That would be my dad" Bacchus snorted with mild amusement, "Old man can't do anything fun. Part of the reason I graduated high school at 17 and tech school by 20. I was tired of living like that."

"Woah" Cana tried to do math in her head, "How old… are you exactly?"

"Oh? You afraid you're a cougar?" He teased.

Cana just crossed her arms, "I may be an alcoholic, but I'll be damned if I get involved with anyone who classifies me as a cougar."

"I'm 26" Bacchus smirked, "You?"

"27" Cana scowled.

"See? That's not bad. You're not a cougar."

"I'm still older than you" Cana pursed her lips together with slight uncertainty.

Bacchus just waved a nonchalant hand to dismiss her worries, "I'm not some jerk off fuck boy like a bunch of other guys my age. I just want to know who you are. I don't have an ulterior motive. Every time we talk you're really good at deflecting conversations to include all the people around you but yourself. That struck me as odd. You drink and make jokes, and that's about it. I knew there was more to you than that."

"Well" Cana took another large sip of her bourbon, "Sorry to disappoint, but that's exactly what I am."

"I know better than that" Bacchus tried to smile at her, "Everyone's got a reason for what they do. I'll find out what yours is, in time."

"Tch" Cana hissed as she downed the rest of her drink and demanded another.

"Slow it down" Bacchus laughed, "I didn't invited you out to get you shit faced."

"I came out here to get shit faced" Cana looked over at him with a slightly squinty-eyed expression.

"At least write down your address before you become delirious so I can get you home when you pass out."

"Fine" Cana grunted before scribbling onto a sticky note and handing it to Bacchus.

* * *

"You sure you're feeling ok?" Mira asked Laxus after they had walked into the front door of the boys' house, "I could make some soup."

"No" Laxus grunted, "I just..." he paused mid sentence as he felt his breath get more labored.

Mira scurried over and put her hand on his forehead before her eyes went wide, "You're burning up!"

"It's cause I've got the hots for you" Laxus tried to be suave and get out of being treated like a preschooler with the flu.

"Stop that" Mira scowled, "You're going to go lay down upstairs right now, and go sleep."

"I was going to do that anyway" Laxus scowled at her as he grabbed onto the Bannister at the bottom of the stairs.

"Then what's stopping you?" Mira scowled back at him.

Laxus leaned in like he was about to kiss her, but the front door slamming back open as Rouge, Sting, Kagura, and Yukino appeared, reminding him that he was sick, and if he kissed Mira then she'd get it too. After pulling away, much to Mira's dismay, Laxus trudged up the stairs.

"Cock blocked!" Sting yelled up at him before they all plopped down on the living room sofa to turn the TV on.

"Shouldn't you guys have gone out for pizza?" Mira asked a little peeved they'd interrupted the 'moment.'

"Nah" Sting waved a hand, "Natsu would've eaten it all. There'd have been no point."

Mira sighed knowing full well how much food Natsu ate. It was a wonder there was anything in the kitchen at all. After trudging in, Mira sighed at the lack of ingredients here at the boys' house. Cereal and basic baking ingredients were all that could be found along with junk food. Once she did an inventory check to make sure there was nothing for her to make, she went over to the girls' house next door to cook in her own kitchen. She was determined to make Laxus feel better. After preparing a soup for him she packaged the leftovers in a large piece of tupperware to put in the boys' fridge with Laxus's name on it, she headed over with a hot bowl in hand. After opening the front door and finding the four couch potatoes the exact same as when she left she just scowled at them.

"Keep the TV volume down, Laxus is trying to rest."

"He's such an old fart he probably has bad hearing anyway" Sting chuckled before Mira smacked him over the head.

"I wasn't asking" she glared at him, eliciting a fearful reaction from all of them.

"Give me that!" Yukino grabbed the remote from Sting and turned the TV volume down before nervously smiling back at Mira.

"Good" she said as she walked up the stairs with the hot bowl of soup towards Laxus's room.

"What was that about?" Rouge asked with a wide eyed expression.

"You don't ever want to piss Mira off" Kagura gave Rouge a sideways glance, though Rouge could tell even Kagura was on edge from Mira's confrontation.

"Is she really that scary?" Sting asked nervously having seen the eyes of satan herself.

Yukino was still visibly shaking as she nodded before turning down the TV volume just a little bit more just in case Mira didn't think it was enough. Sting and Rouge quirked a brow at the girls' strange behavior but shrugged it off as they turned their attention back to the TV in front of them. Once Mira found her way to Laxus's door she softly tapped on it to see if he was awake, when there wasn't an answer she very slowly and carefully turned the door knob so that it wouldn't wake the cranky blond. He wasn't sleeping, much to her frustration. There on his lap sat his tablet and he was scrolling through something reading, and sorting things. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that it was music files Makarov had e-mailed him to review and edit.

"Give me that" Mira stealthily swiped the tablet out of his hands before replacing it with her bowl of soup, "Eat."

"This?" Laxus pointed to the unfamiliar mixture on his lap, "What is it?"

"Thai coconut chicken soup" she put her hands on her hips while looking at him expectantly.

Laxus sighed from exhaustion, unable to muster up the energy to fight the woman as he lifted spoonfuls of the soup to his mouth. He wouldn't admit it, but he liked it better than the chicken noodle soup Makarov always gave him. The only difference was Makarov dumped it out of a can and microwaved it. Laxus could tell that Mira had cooked it herself. After finishing the bowl and setting it down on his nightstand, Laxus extended his hand expectantly at Mira for his tablet back. Mira just scowled at him and shook her head as she tucked it into a nearby bookshelf and walked over to Laxus's bedside.

"You need to rest. Work will be there when you feel better, but the quality of work you do now while you're sick isn't going to be worth your time or effort." She picked up the bowl and clicked the beside lamp off.

There were still traces of light coming in through the cracks in the bedroom blinds. Laxus huffed and debated getting up to retrieve it himself, but when he realized he felt so shitty that he really didn't want to after all, he realized it was probably best he didn't. Pouting wasn't something Laxus did very often, but the fact that Mirajane had to always make him feel like a kid being right all the time, made him pout a lot more often than he thought he could.

* * *

Natsu and the others arrived later when after the day had turned into the evening. They all tumbled in rubbing their fingers together to try and get warm.

"Hi" Levy smiled as she walked over to Yukino and Kagura to see what they and the boys were watching on the TV.

After plopping down in a chair, Gajeel shortly joined her by faking like he was going to sit on her then opted for the arm rest with a smirk. After scowling at him and slapping his arm, Levy huffed and sank back into the chair.

"Where's Mira?" Lucy asked as she looked around trying to find the silver haired girl.

"In here!" a chirp came from the kitchen.

Lucy made her way over to the doorway and saw the woman in question working hard to clean the kitchen as well as cooking food.

"Mira you could've come and eaten with us so you didn't have to cook…" Lucy sighed as she felt bad about Mira having to make food when the option of not cooking was available.

"It's no problem" she waved her hand dismissively, "Those four meat sacks out there didn't go out to eat and Laxus was upstairs. Cooking for six isn't a waste of time."

"It just takes a lot of time…" Lucy grumbled, "Can I help at all?"

"No" Mira smiled, "Laxus should be asleep upstairs last I checked and then the four in the living room are being surprisingly respectfully quiet."

Lucy shrugged and waved a hand and told Mira she was going to head up to her room. Christmas was exhausting and Lucy never had this many people to shop for before and the thought of it was making her head spin.

"Cooking for the old man?" Natsu smirked jokingly at Mria.

Mirajane looked at him with a mix of a scowl and a quirked brow, "I have to. You never leave any left overs for the poor guy."

"Not my fault I'm a bottomless pit" the pinkette laughed as he pushed himself off the doorway and spun around to head back into the living room.

It looked like everyone was watching the new episode of some series and Natsu figured that since Lucy didn't invite him upstairs with her she wanted some alone time. He was partially right. It wasn't the Lucy wanted time to herself, but she was exhausted and wanted to relax, and Natsu's presence wasn't always _relaxing._ After laying out some clean pajamas, Lucy carried them to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She turned the hot water to the tub on and set her clothes down on the counter. While the tub was filling with water she rinsed off in the shower to get any dirt and grime off of her so she could soak in clean water. After a five minute scrub down, Lucy stepped out of the shower and slipped over into the tub. The warm water reminded her of how sore she was and made her bones ache. However her pleasure soak was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"How long are you going to be in there?" came Gray's voice.

Lucy scowled and blew bubbles under her bath water to delay her reply, "A while" she snapped.

"Well the rest of us would like to shower and bathe too" Gray snarled before she heard him stomp away back down the hall to his own room.

"Don't mind him" came another voice through the door.

"Laxus?" Lucy asked in disbelief.

"What?" he responded confirming her suspicion, "You ok?"

"I've been better" he responded, "But I do need to get in there to get some cold medicine out of the cabinet above the sink."

"Um…" Lucy stammered looking around to try and find a solution to the problem.

"I'll get it!" Natsu's voice came tumbling down the hall.

Before Laxus could tell him that it wasn't a good idea, Natsu took the emergency key to unlock the door off the top of the doorframe and barged right in. Lucy shrieked of course and Natsu walked in without looking at her and grabbed the NyQuill out of the cabinet to hand to Laxus who was staying out of sight of Lucy out of respect, that Natsu obviously didn't have.

"What the fuck?!" Lucy scowled at Natsu after he finally turned to look at her.

The water rippled in a way that hid parts of her body that her hands weren't able to, but the sight of her skin still made him get goose bumps. After looking at Lucy for a few more seconds longer than he needed to he twisted the lock on the door knob and closed it behind him so it was locked again.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"I told you not to do this" Erza grumbled into the phone at nearly midnight.

"I'm sorry" came a man's voice throwing Erza completely off and into protective mode.

"Who are you?! Why do you have Cana's phone?! Where's Cana?!" Erza started shouting and questioning into the phone.

Poor Bacchus had to hold Cana's phone away from his head as he continued to hear the screaming until a softer voice made it's way through the phone's ear speaker.

"Hello?" Mirajane's soft tone come through the phone she was holding in one hand as she was fighting off a rabid Erza with the other hand.

"Hello?" Bacchus responded, "Are one of you able to come get Cana?"

"Well, it's awfully late, what's this about?"

"She's here at the bar and I'm pretty sure she's so drunk that she doesn't even know who I am anymore. I don't really want to put her in a cab by herself and just leave it to chance if she makes it home."

"No, please don't. Thank you. I'll be there soon, where are you?"

Bacchus relayed the location of the bar to Mira as she grabbed the keys to the sedan parked in the driveway and walked out of the front door, begging Erza to stay behind for the sake of not making a scene when she went to go get Cana. After making a few turns and driving about five minutes down the street, Mira found the bar Bacchus was talking about. After scurrying out of the car she walked inside and immediately found the passed out brunette on the bar with a concerned and embarrassed man beside her.

"How much did she even have?" Mira asked as she tried to shake Cana awake.

"I lost count" Bacchus tried to laugh nervously as if it wasn't that big of a deal, "I'm sorry. I did try to stop her. She just seemed hellbent tonight on doing this to herself."

"It's ok" Mira sighed, "There's nothing anyone can do when she decides to do this. You did the right thing by calling us."

"Do you need help getting her to the car?"

"If you want to hold the car door open, I'll carry her outside and put her in."

"Sure"

After making their way out to the parking lot and Mira could smell the fresh air outside the dank and smokey bar she turned around with a quirked brow at smelling the sheer amount of alcohol on Bacchus.

"You need a ride too?" She asked over her shoulder, "Smells like you aren't that far behind Cana."

Bacchus laughed at her for saying it the way she did but shrugged as he said, "I don't really want to trouble you I was just going to walk since I didn't drive here anyway."

"No please. It's no trouble. Get in." Mira said coaxingly as she tried to get both of the drunks in her car.

It seemed like at least once a month she was playing 'mom' to all of these rowdy children who were supposed to be adults. After seeing Bacchus off safely to his apartment building, Mira headed strait back to the house where Erza was standing guard in the window, waiting for her to pull into the driveway.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Erza was trying to scold a clearly incapacitated Cana.

"Hun" Mira turned around with Cana slung over her shoulder, "She can't hear you. She's out cold."

"Is she ok?" Erza scowled trying to keep a hard face.

"I dunno" Mira said as she carried her inside, "Luckily, Cana's built up a tolerance to drinking to where I'm pretty sure she'll be fine. I'll just be sure to tuck her in on her side."

"Tuck her in? We aren't kids Mira." Kagura scoffed while sitting on the living room sofa after hearing what Mira said once she and Erza had entered the house.

"Sometimes you fucking act like it" Mira scowled at Kagura with stern face that demanded respect, "I've had to do this for every single fucking one of you at least once" she gestured by pointing to Cana slung over her shoulder, "I don't want you telling me you aren't kids until you all stop behaving like kids."

* * *

"Hey" Natsu tried to say to Lucy as she walked back into their room with her pajamas on, "I'm…" Natsu tried to apologize but looked over to see the angry expression on Lucy's face

Lucy said nothing as she looked at him with silent judgement in her eyes before grabbing her pillow and setting it on the couch against the foot of the bed. After going out in the hall and coming back with a throw blanket she gave Natsu one last glance of disappointment before laying down.

Natsu didn't know what power women had with the silent treatment, but he felt like someone just nailed him in the gut with a led pipe. He wasn't thinking when he went in there to get the medicine. He just assumed that since Laxus needed it, it would be better for Natsu to get it instead of Laxus. However, it seems Lucy didn't want anyone to get the cold medicine.

 _"_ _I'm such a fucking idiot"_ Natsu thought to himself as he slammed his face onto his desk.

After a few more minutes Natsu was able to realize that Lucy wasn't in fact asleep. It was almost as if Natsu's presence was making her uncomfortable. He guiltily stood up from his desk and quietly made his way to the door before turning the lights out and closing the door behind him. After trotting down the stairs he noticed that Mira and Levy had returned next door and Gajeel was no where to be seen. The only people in the living room were Sting, Rouge, Yukino, and Kagura. Natsu sighed at the thought of having to sit there and watch one of their weird shows that was already three seasons in. He decided that it would probably be better if he just went out to exercise and vent his frustrations that way instead of keeping himself cooped up.

* * *

"Are you sure you're ok?" Levy asked quietly as she eyed Lucy while they were both inside a small store shopping for Christmas gifts.

Lucy shrugged as she said, "I just don't know how to feel about stuff right now" she admitted as she picked up a piece of mistletoe and handed it to Levy, "Here's your gift for Gajeel"

Levy just swatted at the offensive object until Lucy put it back as she said, "Like hell it is! You know he's not my type, c'mon."

Lucy just smirked at her and asked, "You sure? You're the one who like the mister 'tall, dark, and handsome' type."

"A dark tan" Levy corrected, "Not a dark personality."

"Well he has dark hair?" Lucy offered.

Levy just shook her head as she swat her hand to her face in frustration, "Can we not talk about Gajeel and I please? What about you and Natsu."

"It doesn't matter" Lucy said, "Pretty sure things won't work out."

"Woah" Levy looked at her friend with slight shock, "Where is all of this coming from?"

"He just… I don't know how to explain it but it's like he's almost too comfortable around me and doesn't know what _boundaries_ are. He fucking walked into the bathroom without a second thought, unlocking the door that I'd locked with some kind of emergency key above the door, and then staring at me for several seconds when he came in to get cold medicine for Laxus. I'm pretty sure that gorilla wouldn't have died from not having the cold medicine for another half hour."

"Natsu doesn't exactly ooze social manners Luce. He has a great personality and when it comes to you he's an attack dog to anyone who comes after you, but then I guess, he's not as refined when it comes to dealing with women romantically. Try to cut him some slack."

"I have tried, and honestly it wasn't really that big of an issue until I truly felt violated, like last night."

"If boundaries are an issue Luce then _set_ them. It sounds like you expect him to know better, but if you don't spell it out then the poor guy has no idea." Levy sighed as she looked at her friend who was a mixture of depressed and angry.

Lucy just sighed in defeat as she continued browsing the shelves for gifts aimlessly. She was especially trying to find one for Natsu, but after last night's events her judgement was clouded as his name didn't bring a pleasant sensation to her mind to find him the right present.

* * *

"You alive?" Mira asked as she was standing in the doorway to Cana and Erza's room.

The red head was up all night staring at Cana to make sure she was still breathing with slight worry and mostly anger. After finally passing out in the kitchen from being up all night with a cup of coffee still in her hand, Mira decided that it was safe to take over. Cana squirmed a bit at Mira's speaking but just sat up with a yawn as she rubbed her eyes, unperturbed by the sunlight.

"Good as ever" Cana smiled.

"You're disgusting" Mira scowled, "You're also in trouble."

"I'm alive, what more do you want from me?" Cana crossed her arms with a pout.

"Some decent behavior" Mira made sure her eyes were like steel as she prepared the dish out the lecture she'd saved for her younger sister if something like this were to happen, "I can't believe you have the nerve to not only get drunk on purpose, but get drunk with a complete stranger with no regards to your personal safety?! What's got you so bent out of shape that you need to escape from it this way and trouble the rest of us?!"

Cana's pout softened as she looked down and away from Mira with an introspectively angry look, "Why is that any of your business?"

"Because when you had your date call me to pick you up you made it my business."

"He's a nice enough guy, as I'm sure you noticed. He wouldn't have hurt me anyway."

"That's not the point" Mira tried to instantly counter her, "You would've done that with someone else regardless and you know it. The problem is that you worried both Erza and I, and you caused a huge commotion last night."

"How did I cause it? I was passed out."

"You caused it by creating a problem. A problem that you made the rest of us fix."

"You didn't fix anything…" Cana muttered under her breath before pulling the covers over her head to signal that the conversation was over.

"I can't believe you sometimes!" Mira hissed at her, "You're the second oldest right behind me but sometimes you're the one who acts like your still in high school!"

After saying her final sentence it took all of Mira's self control not to slam the door closed since it was still 8am and no one else had staggered awake yet besides her and Erza. Upon walking back in the kitchen, Mira found Erza awake again, probably having heard their conversation just down the hall.

"Anything to add?" Mira asked half annoyed at the look Erza was giving her and half sincere in her question.

"Nope" Erza sipped her coffee by the breakfast nook looking out the window, "I think you handled that better than I would've."

* * *

"Some nerve you have" Levy scoffed without looking over her shoulder, already knowing that she had been followed.

She decided she wanted to have some peace and quiet after Christmas shopping with Lucy for the past hour by going to one of her favorite book stores, but she instantly felt bugs crawling under her skin when she kept seeing black hair from the corner of her eye when she would turn a corner on her way there.

"What's wrong with making sure you're safe, shorty?" Gajeel tried to smirk his way out of it.

Levy crossed her arms as she turned around to face him with a scowl, "We both know how hard I punch."

"Yes I know" Gajeel rubbed his jaw as if remembering the impact.

"Well if that's all you came for then you can just go back home."

"What if it's not?" Gajeel asked with a devilish smile.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What if I just wanted to spend some time with you?"

"Even when you know I don't like you?"

"That's cause you don't spend time with me."

"I don't spend time with you because I don't like you."

"Yea, just like you feel asleep on my chest back at the resort because you don't like me. Now where were you headed to?"

Levy's face turned red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment at Gajeel bringing up the resort when she'd fallen asleep on him reading a book. Knowing full well that he wasn't going to take no for an answer she just screamed with her mouth closed to vent some frustration before stomping inside the bookstore they were standing in front of. After nonchalantly walking inside Gajeel made his way over to the gentleman behind a counter and taking a minute to speak with hem. Levy didn't care as she rolled her eyes before disappearing further inside.

Upon scanning the shelves, Levy found several books that brought back so many memories. There was To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Giver, Number The Stars, and many many more. It was almost as if the store owner had known to place them all so close together. Then she felt dumb as she realized she had stumbled into the "required reading" section for local schools, where she had made her first encounter with all of these books.

Gajeel came around the corner to see the copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in Levy's hand and immediately let out small 'tch' noise under his breath.

"That book was creepy as hell."

"Oh?" Levy asked sarcastically, "You actually read it?"

"Yea, cause I was hoping the next chapter would be less shittier than the previous ones, but it never happened."

"How rude, this won the pulitzer prize!"

"And Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Prizes don't matter in literature. It's all about opinion."

"Then what makes your opinion better than mine?" Levy scowled at him with her hands on her hips.

"It doesn't" he smirked at her, "In my opinion, that book is a piece of garbage and I won't read it again as long as I live, but that doesn't mean no one else can like it."

"Well then Mr. literature aficionado, what _do_ you like?" Levy crossed her arms expectantly.

Gajeel chuckled at her before putting his hand on his chin and examining the shelf in front of him, "Catcher in the Rye is a pretty good classic. It's less dreary than all that southern gothic crap in the book you're holding."

"What?! That book is full of prostitutes, cussing, and bad behavior!"

"Exactly" Gajeel ran his thumbs across all the pages, "It's realistic. People are flawed, the world is flawed, and this guy takes an adventure through it all. There's more food for thought from this than from that one."

"Well, Catcher in the Rye still isn't better than Pride and Prejudice."

Gajeel almost outright laughed at Levy as he asked, "So you like that book?"

Levy pouted as she said, "Jane Austin knows a woman's heart."

"So you think poetry is the food of love?"

"No…" Levy looked at him in disbelief.

Gajeel smirked as he continued the next part, "Of a fine stout love, it may. But if it is only a vague inclination I'm convinced one poor sonnet will kill it stone dead."

"Get out of here!" Levy smiled as she slapped him with the book she was holding, "I never see you read."

"I know" Gajeel laughed, "No one does."

"You told me to stop reading!" She kept trying to jab him with the book while he was deflecting her attacks.

"Because I wanted to spend time with you and you were more enamored with your reading than with me. I felt a little insulted." He shrugged.

Levy tried to let go of her pride as she bit her tongue before saying, "I'm sorry if you felt like I ignored you…"

"S'ok shorty, but you of all people should understand the meaning of 'don't judge a book by it's cover'" Gajeel gave her a shit eating grin at his joke about himself.

"So…" Levy looked down at the ground, "Do you read any other books?"

Gajeel shrugged, "I haven't really read anything a lot lately since we're all focusing on our music. The last thing I read was this series called Hush Hush."

"No way!" Levy shrieked, "I just finished the third book! What did you think?"

"Well, to be honest I only read it because a fallen angel romance sounded better and more edgy than vampires, but it was just a different setting of the same genre."

"Yea…" Levy sighed, "But it was still really well written.

"I enjoyed it a little. Wasn't a complete waste of time." Gajeel nonchalantly made a gesture indicating his impartialness.

After a few moments of silence Levy scoured the cook shelves and stopped for a moment after her hand had traced over what looked like the fourth book in the series she and Gajeel were just talking about. However she had to hesitate picking the item up since she knew if she grabbed it she would buy it, and her money needed to go towards gifts for everyone else. She also reasoned that if Gajeel had already read the whole series then he probably had a copy of it somewhere.

After heading towards the front of the store empty handed, Levy walked with Gajeel towards the exit of the store where he suddenly stopped her from exiting the store. Levy looked at him confused before he gave her a devilish smile as he pointed up above the door where Levy saw a sprig of mistletoe.

"Why does everyone do this now?!" Levy growled looking up at the perpetrating green holiday decoration.

"You don't recognize it shorty?" Gajeel chuckled, "It's the same one from your house the other night."

"No way!" Levy laughed as she slapped his chest realizing that it was intentional.

"Yes way" Gajeel said as he leaned down closer to her face.

He was convinced that he wasn't going to let her get away this time. Ever since they all had harassed him about not kissing her all her could think about was her light pink lips and soft looking skin. Levy told herself that this was ok as Gajeel's face inched slowly towards her, waiting for some kind of reaction to indicate that what he was doing was wrong. Convinced that this was the right decision, Levy decided to spring up on her tip toes just before his mouth had made it to hers, so that she could let him know that she was a willing participant. As soon as their mouths met for a few moments in a soft caress of skin the store clerk behind the counter started clapping vigorously which startled Levy slightly as she twitched and broke her snogging session with Gajeel.

"Sorry…" the man suddenly turned sheepish as he realized he had mildly ruined the moment.

Gajeel chuckled a little as he walked out of the door to the store with Levy in tow right next to him, "Sorry. I asked him if I could plant that there."

Levy shook her head, "I realized that now, since I saw you talking to him when we first walked in."

"Not mad, shorty?"

"No" Levy sighed with a mixture of smile and confusion.

Gajeel just her a quick squeeze with a side huge before walking next to her as they made their way back home.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Hey can we-" Natsu tried to ask Lucy as she came through the bedroom door after getting home from shopping with Levy.

"No" she cut him off before he could finish asking the question.

Natsu had to let out a sigh of frustration before he walked over behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Then I'm not asking. We _need_ to talk."

"You _need_ to respect my space" Lucy shot back at him with an attitude as she shrugged his had off.

"Respect goes both ways Luce"

She snorted before trying to walk to the door but stopped after hearing Natsu's words.

"I'm sorry." He said instantly, "I shouldn't have walked in on you like that, but don't you think this is a little much? The anger? The silent treatment? The attitude? Especially when I'm trying to fix it. You want respect but you won't even respect my half in this. You won't listen to me while I try to apologize and figure out what you want from me. You need to communicate with me Luce."

"Don't lecture me" she scowled over her shoulder, "I'll think about it."

"Thank about _what?_ Natsu asked with a disgruntled expression.

"I'll think about whether or not I want to talk to you."

With a dumbfounded Natsu behind her, Lucy walked out of the room to go next door. As much as she felt a pang of guilt at treating him that way after his honesty, she couldn't stand the thought of doing anything but putting space between them right now. She knew he was right, she was overreacting, but that didn't make her emotions any less raw. The part that upset her was because she liked him, and he saw her, naked, and didn't seem to react in any kind of way. No woman wants to be seen by the man she likes as if she's a loaf of bread or an ordinary sheet of paper. His reaction, or lack there of, is what threw her off and made her emotions spiral with self doubt and loathing, feelings she never hoped to revisit.

* * *

Erza's phone suddenly rang while it was sitting on the kitchen counter. The red head was helping Mira cook, but quickly washed her hands to answer her phone after hearing the ring tone go off. Not bothering to look at the caller ID she flipped it opened.

"Hello?" she asked as she leaned against the counter.

"Hey" the familiar voice made her body suddenly twitch in shock.

"U-uh h-hey!" she stammered with a nervous laugh, "I thought you were gunna text or something. Wasn't expecting a call…"

"Oh! I'm sorry… should I just-?"

"No" Erza quickly cut him off, "It's fine you already called so we can talk, what's up?"

Mira had to stifle a laugh at how both of them were being awkward. She couldn't hear Jellal's end of the phone but she could only assume after seeing the two of them together at the island doing karaoke.

"So I thought about what you wanted to do for Christmas, and I was wondering if… even though it's short notice, you'd like to go to the rink tonight?" Jellal asked while scratching the back of his neck, happy that Erza couldn't see his visible nervousness.

"Umm uh, uh, sure!" Erza finally squeaked out as a visible smile cracked onto her face.

"Great! I'll pick you up at seven?" Jellal said more as a question then a statement.

"Sounds good" Erza kept the smile on her face before they said their goodbyes and ended the call.

"Oh boy" Mira mocked Erza with a knowing smile, "Don't tell me I'll be picking you up tonight this time."

Erza crossed her arms, "unlike Cana I don't need to be drunk to have a good time."

Mira shrugged, "Well I never know with any of you really. One day someone just snaps and then 'whoops!' someone's gotta come fix it."

"Something tells me they don't serve alcohol at a family ice-skating rink" Erza mouth twitched into an annoyed line.

"Well that's good to hear. Have fun, make sure you text or something if you're going to be out late, or not come home."

"You gunna wait up for me or something?" Erza cocked her head to the side.

"No" Mira laughed a little, "Just in case I wake up in the middle of the night and see you aren't home I don't wanna panic. Just leave a text for me if I wake up and see that then I won't worry."

"Fine" Erza sighed, "You're so weird. You treat all of us like kids."

"Not you too" Mira slightly scowled, "Kagura already thinks I'm gunna start inflicting punishments like some kind of mom."

"You are a mom" Erza snorted, "You practically ooze maternal vibes the way you try and herd everyone like cattle."

"You guys aren't cattle" Mira crossed her arms, "You're family. I'm sorry that my concern is so misplaced."

Erza felt slightly bad about her words. Knowing that Lisanna and Elfman were far away from home, it was hard on Mira not to have real family around, and so a makeshift family of destitute coworkers was her next closest thing. Some people just had niches for things. Natsu's was music, Levy's was reading and book smarts, and Mira just had this maternal instinct that made her the world's best parent despite not actually having children.

* * *

"You can't stay mad at him forever" Levy scowled at Lucy, "What are you even mad about?"

"I just… he breaks through boundaries like they're made of styrofoam."

"Well" Levy sighed as she closed her book to give Lucy her full attention while they sat across from each other on her bed, "I guess the more important question to ask is, are you upset because you want those boundaries there? Or are you upset for a different reason?"

Lucy took a moment to ponder Levy's two-cents about her situation and realized why the blue haired girl was truly one of her best friends. It was hard to fathom how someone could fit so much wisdom into one tiny little body like that, but it wasn't surprising due to all the books she read from every genre.

"I guess" Lucy sighed, "I don't want those boundaries there… but I never knew that someone knocking them down would scare me so much…"

"So you're scared?" Levy asked in a philosophical tone, attempting to get Lucy to psychoanalyze herself into being aware of her situation, "So let's address that first, why are you scared?"

"I…" Lucy looked down and knew that if it were anyone but Levy she would curly up into a ball and not say anything, but Levy already know most of her past, more than even Natsu, "I've always been alone, romantically."

"What about Loke?" Levy asked confused about her past high school romance.

"That was… a weird situation. My father had arranged for him to try and impress me as his family offered my father a huge business deal and our parents were talking about trying to get us to like each other so they wouldn't feel bad about marrying us for a business merger."

"And?" Levy pried a little further having never truly been told the full extent of the situation.

"And I found him cheating on me with some girl below the basketball bleachers after school because he said 'I was too much of a prude and wouldn't let him touch me.'"

"Wow, what a dick, what did your dad do?" Levy asked, but soon realized that was a sore spot.

"He… he disowned me for ruining the merger just about. I was still living in the house, but he didn't talk to me, cut off all my cards to the family's money, and basically waited for me to leave."

"Did you?" Levy asked softly.

Lucy shrugged, "I didn't have much of a choice. Eventually the house staff stopped even giving me access to food or basic necessities in the house, like i was some kind of unwanted guest."

"What did you do after you left."

"This" Lucy gestured ambiguously to herself, "I ended up on the street for about a week until Mavis found me. She helped me get an advance loan on my apartment I was in for a year so that I wouldn't be homeless until I could afford one."

"She really helped all of us didn't she?" Levy sighed trying to bring up warm feelings about Mavis and distract Lucy from the mess that was previously her life.

"That's why I don't really trust men, or like them. Loke was a player and didn't have any loyalty or a shred of dignity, and my father… my father abandoned me without a second thought. The men in my life have all let me down so badly that I don't know how to get up."

Levy sympathetically nodded before scooting over to Lucy and grabbing her in a side hug, "We've been friends for a year, but I really had no idea you had this much baggage. Is that why you never give out your last name?"

"Yes" Lucy breathed, "If my father ever found out what a disgrace I am he might actually try to kill me just to save face."

"Woah" Levy suddenly twitched, "Are you fucking serious?"

"I'm not totally sure, but if it was that easy for him to abandon me while I was in my Sr. year of high school, not even fully an adult, then I don't see why he wouldn't."

Levy just pat Lucy's head as she asked, "Want me to go make some tea?"

Lucy shrugged, "Couldn't hurt. You got that lavender stuff?"

Levy nodded with a small smile before disappearing downstairs. After descending the stair case she was surprised to see Natsu standing alone in the living room looking around.

"Can I help you?" Levy asked awkwardly.

"Yea" Natsu said as she shrugged his coat off to reveal a sweater and a scarf around his neck, "Where's Luce?"

"Now might not be the best time…" Levy tried to soften the blow to his ego, "She doesn't really wanna see anyone right now."

"She doesn't want to, but she needs to. I'm not going to leave her alone until she understands that she can't dodge me forever. I'm here and she's going to have to deal with me."

Levy just slumped in defeat while boiling water for the tea and placing the bags inside the mugs, "Well I was making us some tea, you can take hers up to my room to her, but if she beats the shit out of you don't blame it on me. I warned you."

"Just give me the mug already" Natsu impatiently demanded with his hand out, "I need to go talk to her."

"No make-up sex in my bedroom either" Levy added as she shouted up the stairs behind him as he scurried up to her room.

Lucy heard a soft knock at the door and was surprised that Levy would knock on her own door until she saw pink hair slipping around the door jamb.

"No" she said as she slipped under her covers.

"Yes" Natsu retorted after setting her mug of tea down on the night stand next to her side of the bed.

Once Natsu set the tea down he made his way over to where Lucy's feet were and sat on the edge of the bed and shook her legs, "Luce you can't avoid me forever."

"I can try" She grumbled, "Besides I told you I would think about talking to you."

"Thinking time is over" Natsu crossed his arms as he looked at the lump of blankets with a critical stare, "Time to be an adult."

"You're one to talk" she snorted.

"Well… if you won't talk…." Natsu started to grow a mischievous smirk onto his face, "You'll have to laugh!"

Before Lucy could react he had already leaved down over the top of her and located where her ticklish sides where and started grabbing and pinching them through the blankets as she squirmed and squealed laughing.

"Stop!" She shrieked as she continued laughing, "Stop! I'll talk!"

After she said that last statement Natsu let up on her and waited for her to emerge from below the covers. After she finally popped up and sat up to look at him she could see just how stupid she'd been acting. Here she was moping around with her friend, and here he was struggling to talk to her and relentlessly pursuing her while she was pouting.

"What did you want?" She scowled slightly, but not as hard as she had earlier.

"I want to know what the problem is" Natsu asked as he leaned back in the bed, resting on his elbows.

"Me" Lucy said without hesitation, "The problem is me."

"Well," Natsu huffed, "I don't think it's just you. I'm not used to this either. I'm not good at relationships, and that's not even what we are, since you aren't comfortable with labels or commitment yet."

Lucy played with the palms of her hands before stuttering, "We could… we could always change that."

Natsu looked at her with a quirked brow of curiosity before asking, "And what does that mean?"

"It means" Lucy almost whispered as she embarrassingly mumbled, "We could always take the plunge, and try."

"Try what?" Natsu leaned closer to her face to hear her better.

"Us" she blushed furiously before looking over at him.

"Us?" He said it as a question.

"Love" Lucy clarified as she felt like slapping her face at the amount of trouble she was having trying to explain her feelings, "Us, trying to love each other."

"I don't have to try that" Natsu smiled as he leaned down and kissed her cheek to whisper in her ear, "I already do."

Lucy felt her body go hot with feelings and the physical sensation of Natsu Natsu's kisses on her cheek going down her neck while his hot breath ghosted her skin.

"I said no sex!" Levy had her arms crossed in the door way with a playful scowl on her face.

"We still have clothes on" Natsu stuck his tongue out at her.

"Take it next door you two. I wanna take a nap in my own room, on my own bed."

Lucy and Natsu smiled sheepishly before walking out of Levy's room back next door to the other house where Natsu's room was waiting for both of them. After walking through the front door they were greeted with a chorus of groans and sighs of relief.

"What the hell?" Natsu asked a little annoyed, "Is it that bad we're home?"

"No" Laxus grunted, "We're glad you two aren't fucking fighting anymore. We were all about to lose our minds if you two kept shouting and slamming doors on each other."

Lucy crossed her arms and huffed. She was really the only one slamming doors, but they did both yell at each other while fighting, unfortunately. After scurrying up the stairs Natsu closed the bedroom door behind Lucy and locked it promptly.

"Wha-" Lucy was about to ask him what he was doing locking the door, but Natsu's lips were faster as they slammed against hers.

"Privacy" he told her with one breathy word before recapturing her mouth and leading her towards the bed with an arm around her waist.

Once the back of Lucy's legs were against the side of the bed, Natsu pushed her up on top of the mattress and took a moment to look down her and the way she was sprawled under him. He made a small grunting noise as he sank his waist in between Lucy's thighs and continued kissing her senseless. After leaving her lips he trailed his way down to her neck and managed to reach his hands under her shirt to grasp one breast in his palm. At first he only squeezed a bit, but then hungered for more as he slipped his fingers under the fabric as well and felt her soft bare skin and firm nipples against his hand.

"mmppphh" Lucy mewled as she tried to bite her bottom lip at his wandering mouth and hands.

"You ok?" he asked with a sultry growl to his voice.

Lucy nodded as she leaned her head back up to kiss him again as he started trying to slip her shirt off over her head. After discarding the flannel shirt Natsu made short work of unclasping her bra and tossing it across the room. He crawled the rest of the way up onto the bed over Lucy as he pulled her up more as well so she was still right underneath him. Once she was laying there in nothing but a pair of sweat pants Natsu couldn't help but ogle what was already visible to him.

"You're…" he was breathing heavily, "You're beautiful"

Lucy felt her face flush with even more red as her eyes clouded over with lust. Natsu moved his mouth down to her neck and kissed his way to her chest where he nibbled on the tips of her breasts, making her moan even more and hitch her breath with each flick of his tongue. The blond couldn't even register anything that was going on besides Natsu on top of her. Eventually she felt him start to play with the hem of her pants and twitched. Natsu sensed the sudden movement and flicked his eyes to her for confirmation.

"I'm sorry…" Lucy panted heavily with a red, guilty face, "But I can't yet…"

Natsu sighed a little in frustration but nodded before he started sliding off of her to stand on the floor by the bed.

"But…" Lucy mumbled, "I can do something else."

Natsu quirked his brow at her as he watched her scoot over to the edge of the bed, still topless. As she stood up right in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him softly at first, and then hungrily. After a few minutes she reached the hem of his shirt and threw it up over his head and tossed it to the side before roughly fumbling with the belt buckle, button, and zipper of his jeans, after wriggling the waist band lose she pulled his jeans down and sank down to her knees with them. She grabbed hold of the pulsing length she'd felt pressing against her earlier and gave it a small squeeze. Natsu's eyes went a little wide as he watched her pull the boxers down just like his jeans. Now fully exposed, Natsu wasn't sure what to do as he felt Lucy's mouth touch his length.

"Luce if you don't want-" Natsu tried to say but was cut off when she swallowed his member into her mouth.

He could even feel her taking him into the back of her throat as her tongue swirled around the tip with each movement of her head. After a few seconds Natsu instinctively put his hands on the back of Lucy's head as he aggressively pressed her into him as she continued bobbing back and forth.

"Fuck" he hissed while feeling his legs start to shake slightly, "Lucy, you need to slow down or-"

Natsu had a hard time forming sentences at the sensations between his legs. Eventually he realized that standing strait up was probably a bad idea and managed to inch himself backwards into his desk chair. After sitting he saw Lucy crawl up and continue her work while crammed in between his thighs. He could see her face more closely from where he was sitting which made him have an even harder time keeping calm.

"Lucy please" Natsu almost begged, "I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep it in."

With a slight breakaway and a trail of saliva leading her mouth, Lucy looked up to him with a sultry expression, "Then don't keep it in."

Natsu felt his eyes roll back into his head as his mind started reeling. What on earth was she doing to him and why was she so good at it? A few moments later Natsu tried to warn Lucy of his impending explosion so that she wouldn't get a mouth full of him but she didn't seem to detach herself from his length. He had to try and push her face slightly away so that he could try and keep things as clean as possible, but he waited till the last second to try and remove her mouth from him, so his seed went all over her face instead.

"Shit" he hissed in both pleasure and apology to Lucy, "I didn't mean to…"

Natsu had to stop talking as he looked at the mess in front of him. She was still breathing heavy, covered in his bodily fluids and he had to look away before he got a second errection.

"I didn't mean to do that, I was trying to keep from going in your mouth since some girls aren't into that."

"It's ok" Lucy tried to smile nervously as her sense of shame set in and was covering her breasts with her arms, "I might've gone a little overboard. I'm sorry."

"Don't be" Natsu heaved a heavy sigh of sweet relief and afterglow, "But… what about you?" He asked skeptically as he realized she was probably still pent up herself from not reaching her own climax.

"I'll be fine" she waved a dismissive hand, "I just… I don't really know how to explain to you why it is I'm not ready yet."

Natsu walked over to his dresser drawer and threw on some sweat pants before discarding the jeans, boxers and t-shirt on the floor then asking Lucy, "I won't rush you, but it'd be nice to know why."

"I… I hace a complicated past, but ironically, I've never had sex" she laughed nervously.

Natsu almost choked on his own spit as he whipped around to face her with a shocked expression, "Then what… we just… why didn't you… what?"

"It's ok" Lucy waved another dismissive hand, "I did what I was comfortable with, so it's ok."

"Are you sure, I mean, I just assumed that… I'm so sorry" Natsu tried to apologize between embarrassment and confusion.

"I said it's fine" Lucy almost laughed, "Don't worry about it. It was, nice" she blushed.

Natsu didn't bother putting a shirt on as he came over and hopped onto the bed causing Lucy to bounce while still holding onto her chest.

"Hey" she playfully scowled before kicking him, "It's bad enough I don't have a shirt on, you don't have to make them bounce too."

Natsu just gave her a playful and devious smirk before getting up and grabbing one o f his own clean t-shirts out of a drawer and throwing it to her.

"One condition though" he told her, "No pants."

"What?" She squealed, "But…"

"You can keep your underwear, but no pants."

"Why?" She asked indignantly and confused.

"I want you to feel comfortable around me."

"Forcing me into it is not the way to do it" she chided him.

"Yea" he smirked, "But your'e stubborn and wouldn't do it otherwise, and you've been around me before in worse clothing than that."

"Fair enough" Lucy scowled at him remembering the clothes she would wear for her previous job.

After crawling into bed together Natsu was watching videos on his phone with one earbud in his ear. He could tell from the slow rise and fall of Lucy's chest that she was asleep next to him. A small smile made it's way onto his lips before he leaned down to kiss her forehead. A moment later Natsu cursed under his breath at the knock on the door. He slowly tried to slip out of the bed so as not to disturb the blond beside him. After opening the door he instantly scowled.

"What do you want ice tits?"

"You're the one who's shirtless this time" Gray pointed out with an equal scowl.

"Why are you knocking on my door at 10pm?" Natsu asked impatiently.

"Laxus wanted to grab a late bite to eat, but I see you already made plans for the evening…" Gray looked over Natsu's shoulder to see the sleeping lump in the pinkette's bed.

"That's not what happened, but whatever" Natsu sighed slightly agitated and satisfied at the night's events.

"Well I'll tell him you're not coming" Gray sneered taking one last look at the shirtless imp before turning on his hell to head back downstairs.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"I hope you're as good at this as you think you are" Jellal laughed nervously as he put one foot into the ice rink.

Erza looked over her shoulder after getting her bearings on the ice and smiled, "Of course! You'll be swallowing ice chips behind me as you eat my dust."

"That's what I'm afraid of" he chuckled under his breath hoping it wasn't audible.

After the two were standing on the ice, it became very evident to Jellal that Erza had no idea what she was actually doing. Her rental skates were a one size too small and her ankles and knees were buckling as she tried to steady herself.

"Sure you don't just y'know, want to skate casually? Just have fun?" Jellal tried to dissuade her from skating so fast.

Whipping her head to the side to scowl at him she muttered, "I'm competitive and I promised that I would skate faster than you."

"Well you are" Jellal said as he gestured at the fact that she was in front of him, "So now that you've won, why don't you just take it easy?"

Erza took note of the way his entire body was relaxed and he seemed to float along with her with no effort. She was jealous at his ability to keep balance and she bet that he could even out pace her if he was trying. She knew the only reason she was skating in front of him is because he was letting her.

"Why don't you show me what you've got?" Erza gnashed her teeth as she hobbled and tried to speed up.

Instantly knowing it was a bad idea Jellal tried to catch her before she ended up bulldozing into other skaters who were trying to enjoy the rink. After apologizing to the family of four she knocked over, Jellal turned to Erza to help her up.

"I know you're competitive, but this isn't a sport right now, look around" Jellal waved a hand across the rink for Erza to see the other people.

There were families with small children who were trying to help the littlest ones keep balanced. A few high schoolers in small groups were laughing and horsing around. There was even an elderly couple clinging to the walls of the rink for safety as they tried to skate. And of course, the overwhelming majority of people there were adult couples on dates like herself and Jellal. One thing she realized was, none of the adults were racing. Only some of the younger children were, and they were getting scolded by their parents for it too. Realizing she was behaving no better than an eight year old, Erza covered her face in slight shame.

"I'm sorry" Erza wiped a hand over her face, "I just... I'm trying to make myself look good" she mumbled the last part under her breath, but Jellal still heard it.

"Just relax, skate _safely_ so we can both enjoy it" he laughed nervously before holding his hand out towards her, "If you're having trouble just hold onto me."

Erza tried to make a 'hmph' noise and cross her arms, however when she shifted the weight in her hips to give her stance more attitude, she ended up losing her balance and falling over once again. This time it wasn't toppling over people, but Jellal still laughed and picked her up so she was on her feet before wrapping a hand around her waist.

"Just try and balance. I'll hold onto you until you get the hang of it." He smiled at her sheepishly.

Erza felt a small blush spread across her face at the physical contact, but didn't pull away from him either. She had the facade of an insanely independent woman, but Jellal knew that sometimes it extended past it's true use and ended up manifesting the way it did, with her acting like an angsty preteen. There was nothing wrong with Erza wanting to be independent, in fact, Jellal found it very attractive that she was able to hold her own against anyone, have a good opinion of herself, and have a self-image that was unblemished by others because she was above reproach with the way she held herself. Independence was something he desired very much in a partner since he tended to travel for business a lot and he needed to know that whoever he was with could manage without him temporarily. Her only flaw was that she couldn't do _everything_ on her own, and she had yet to realize that.

"I think they're closing soon" Jellal looked over at the clock on the score board that was ticking down from five minutes.

Erza nodded and they both hopped off the ice to return their rental ice skates. After returning the boots they made their way back to Jellal's car before he turned to her and asked, "Do you want to be competitive now?"

Erza just quirked a brow in a question before Jellal's car chirped with the doors unlocking as he got inside and said "There's board games at my house."

Those were the magic words to get the red head in the car with him as they drove off to his place to continue the evening even further.

* * *

"Have any of you heard from Erza?" Mira asked quietly as she walked through the boys' house's front door to see Rouge and Kagura still awake on the living room sofa watching TV.

The two of them looked over at her with a questioning glance before shaking their heads in unison. The two of them never really spoke to Erza that often and they knew if there was an emergency the two "adults" who would be contacted would either be Mira or Laxus. Everyone else didn't really have the patience or life experience to deal with other people's problems on a large scale.

"Ok. Is Laxus still awake up there?" Mira pointed up, gesturing at the upstairs bedrooms.

Rouge looked over at Mira with a shrug, "I don't think so. I think he, Sting, Gray, Gajeel and Yukino all went out to get food."

"This late?" Mira twisted her face in confusion.

"Sometimes the old man has a flashback to when he was in his early 20's and does something like this." Rouge smirked.

"Do you know where they went?" Mira kept asking questions which was slowly agitating Kagura until she turned to glare at the silver haired woman in her pajamas and robe.

"No. We don't know. But we do know Laxus has a phone, how about calling it?" Kagura snapped before turning her attention back to the movie they were watching.

Mira scowled but decided to let it go as she withdrew from the house and scampered back over to her own. Before calling Laxus she decided to try and call Erza one last time. Her phone went strait to voice-mail. After a frustrated huff Erza hung up and went up the stairs to Levy's room.

"Hey Lu-chan?" she whispered hoping that Levy was awake.

There was a slight groan before Levy growled, "what?" indicating that if she wasn't awake before, she was now.

"We might have a little problem" Mira sighed.

"Like what?"

"Erza's not home yet."

Levy sat up, "Out of all of us, I would be least concerned about her. She doesn't rampantly drink and I feel sorry for any man that tries to fight her."

"That's not the point!" Mira angry whispered, "What if a car hit her or something? Or she's stranded somewhere?"

"Call her."

"I did already! Like, twenty times!"

"Alright fine" Levy sat up out of the bed before putting her pajamas on, "After I settle this you better let me sleep."

"As long as you want" Mira added with a sigh, now that she had her own personal sleuth on the job.

After flipping her phone open she saw a text from Gajeel on the screen, **Getting food soon shortie, wanna come?**

Levy pinched the bridge of her nose before dialing Gajeel's cell phone. There were a few rings before the gruff man answered, _"Hello?"_

"Hey, I need a favor" Levy sighed.

 _"I'm not bringing food back, shrimp, I tried to let you know but you didn't answer."_

"This isn't about food."

 _"Then what's it about?"_

"Where are you right now?"

 _"You ok?"_

"Yes I'm fine, but where _are_ you?"

 _"We're at the Fiore Diner. It's just fifteen minutes down the street. Why?"_

"Don't leave. I'm coming."

 _"Well we're almost done eating now..."_

"Just stay there please. I need to use your phone."

 _"Why?"_

"I'll tell you when I get there! Don't leave!" Levy lost a bit of her patience before hanging up the phone and Google-ing the diner while telling Mira to get dressed.

The two women looked like train wrecks, but at least they were street legal in what they were wearing once they were out of their pajamas. Once they made the fifteen minute trek, they walked through the doors to see the confused dinner party sitting at a nearby circular booth.

After walking up to the table Gajeel quirked a brow at her, "You look like hell shortie, what's the matter?"

Levy had to resist the urge to slap him because of his comment on her disheveled appearance as she held her hand out, "Phone. Now."

Gajeel scowled at her, "You got trust issues with me or something? Why you gotta see my phone?"

"I don't need to see it. I need to call someone on it."

"Who?" Gajeel crossed his arms and scowled.

"The president of the goddamn company!" Levy seethed with frustration, "You think a corporate business mogul would answer a call form an unknown number? He doesn't have any of us girls listed in his phone besides Erza. He only keeps tabs on you guys as a band. The rest of us are managed by Erik who reports to him. Now give me the fucking phone."

Gajeel flinched at the aggression Levy had when snatching his phone away. After scrolling through his contacts she came across "Jellal Fernandes." With a grunt of equal parts frustration and partial success, Levy waited for him to answer while the phone had a dial tone.

 _"_ _Hello?"_ Came Jellal's slightly groggy voice, _"What is it Gajeel?"_

"It's not Gajeel" Levy quickly quipped to correct the misunderstanding in the caller ID.

 _"_ _Oh"_ Came Jellal's statement of confusion, unable to place a name to the voice on the other end of the phone.

After a few seconds of silence it was clear to Levy that he didn't know who he was speaking to so she said "This is Levy, is Erza with you?"

 _"_ _Uh, yeah actually she is, what's wrong?"_ He asked with an unseen quirked eyebrow as he gave the red head a sideways glance.

Erza quickly snapped her head to look at Jellal, detecting that whoever he was on the phone with was asking about her. After cursing, once she realized the time, she took out her phone and her eyes nearly exploded at the number of missed calls and textx from both Mira and Levy.

"Nothing's wrong" Levy rolled her eyes sarcastically, "Other than she said she would be home two hours ago, has failed to answer her phone about 42 times, and no one knows where she is."

 _"_ _Woah…"_ Jellal looked at Erza with slightly wide eyes while she was frantically scrolling through all the missed calls and texts on her phone, cursing under her breath, _"I'll bring her home right away, I apologize."_

"We would all appreciate that, thank you" Levy grunted before hanging up the phone and handing it back to Gajeel.

"What on Earth was that about?" Laxus asked with a quirked brow, switching between glancing at Mira and Levy.

"Oh just worried nerves is all" Mira tried to smile sheepishly to offset Levy's livid expression.

"I'm not worried" Levy snarled, "I'm annoyed, and tired, and hungry, and -" Levy was cut off as Gajeel reached to shove a fork full of pancakes in Levy's mouth in the middle of her rant.

The bluenette's expression turned soft before she slowly started chewing as Gajeel withdrew the fork from her mouth and grunted, "Damn you're a beast when you aren't fed."

Levy crossed her arms and tried to scowl at him but ended up asking, "Can I have some more?"

"Sure shorty" Gajeel chuckled as he scooted over and let the small ball of hungry rage crawl in with him.

Gajeel was mostly done eating anyway, so he handed the fork to Levy and let her eat while he leaned back in the booth and draped his arm along the top of the cushioned seating behind her. Mira just sheepishly waved a hand as others offered her their left overs as well. She wasn't particularly hungry at that moment.

"I think I'll just head back home and wait for Jellal and Erza. I assume you'll come back with the rest of them Levy?" Mira asked as she watched Levy shove fork-fulls of food into her mouth.

The bluenette didn't respond verbally since her mouth was full, so she just held a thumbs up sign to acknowledge what Mira said before returning to the plate of food in front of her. Gajeel snorted lightly in amusement at her stuffing her face so full she couldn't talk. It was no wonder she was in a bad mood if she was that hungry.

* * *

Jellal's shiny BMW pulled up to the house and he killed the headlights. He turned to look at Erza with a smile tinged in slight melancholy.

"Did you not have fun?" Erza asked with wild concern in her eyes.

"No, it's not like that" Jellal chuckled waving a dismissive hand in front of him, "I had so much fun that I'm sad to see it ending."

"It doesn't have to end permanently" Erza smirked with an innocent expression, "We can always go out again, although, we should probably stick to the itinerary next time so 'mother' doesn't wory." Erza used air quotes when referring to Mira's maternal tendencies.

"I see" Jellal laughed slightly as he looked up and saw the silver haired woman in question standing on the front porch in her robes, tapping her foot impenitently at them.

"Damnit!" Erza hissed after noticing her as well, "Now I can't…" she trailed off.

"Can't what?" Jellal cocked an eyebrow while quickly glancing to Mira before returning his eyes to Erza.

"Nothing" Erza tried to smile her way out of it while waving her hand, "I really had fun tonight."

"Me too" Jellal returned her smile, "You should pick something else for us to do again."

"Is that an invitation to a second date?" Erza chuckled nervously.

"I guess it is" Jellal blushed while rubbing his hand on the back of his head.

"I'll see you tomorrow at the studio" Erza said cheerfully before closing the car door and scampering up to the front door to meet Erza.

She gave Jellal one last wave from the porch as his car pulled out of the driveway. She saw him return her wave with a mock salute before pulling onto the street and driving away.

"He couldn't walk you up to the door? How rude" Mira scowled, "Who does he think he is?"

"Seriously?" Erza gave Mira a weary expression, "I'm a grown ass woman, I can walk myself ten feet to the door. He was a gentleman all night. Cut him some slack."

"Well I'm glad _you_ had fun" Mira directed her rage from where she was staring at Jellal's car's last location to Erza's face, "I certainly didn't."

"Well then you should go out on a date too" Erza shrugged as she tried to go inside the house.

"Please be mindful" Mira tried to ask nicely while the scowl was still plastered on her face, "We… well I, I worry because I care. You all are my family. I would be so upset if something happened to any of you due to my lack of vigilance. We're supposed to look out for each other."

"I know" Erza sighed before turning to Mira with an expression of both sympathy and annoyance, "But can we talk about it tomorrow? It's almost sunrise."

"Fine" Mira gave in with a grunt, "But we need to have some kind of group meeting to set down some ground rules."

"Ground rules? Are you serious? We're all adults."

"Inside. Now." Mira pointed to the front door to imply that Erza should walk through it so they could both go inside, she was starting to get cold standing outside in her thin pajamas and robe.

* * *

Last night was amazing, and Natsu had to think for five or ten minutes when he woke up and see the disheveled desk area and rag on the floor to convince himself that it was in fact real. He really had gotten sucked off by the gorgeous blond that he'd been sleeping next to the past several weeks without incident, until now. He certainly knew what her mouth was like now, if anything else. He had to cover his face and try to focus his thoughts elsewhere in order to keep his already erect morning wood from getting harder. The imagine of Lucy's bare chest was enough to get his errection pulsing first thing in the morning. Thankfully Lucy was in one of his oversized t-shirts and her own plain underwear. Natsu folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling to both keep from touching himself, and trying to touch Lucy. He wasn't sure if she was awake yet since her alarm hadn't gone off and she appeared to not stir at all except for the slow rise and fall of her steady breathing. After taking a few minutes to glance over at the clock on his nightstand, Natsu saw that it was only 9am. They didn't have to be at the studio for another two hours, although considering how long she took to get ready he knew it was best to wake her in the next thirty minutes. However as fate would have it, he didn't even need to wake her when a knock came at his door. He tried to get up quietly in case it didn't wake her up already and padded over to his door, seeing a person he really didn't want to deal with right now.

"So" Gray said standing in his doorway trying to look over Natsu's shoulder, "Fun night last night?"

"Probably not as fun as yours, going to a fucking diner in the middle of the night" Natsu crossed his arms and purposely maneuvered his head to continually block Gray's vision of the sleeping blond in the bed behind him.

"You going to be up front with me or what?" Gray asked rather nosily, "You and her are not just friends, are you?"

"No" Natsu said as he leaned in the doorframe, "But what makes us 'not friends' isn't your business."

"Fair enough" Gray shrugged, "I can put two and two together."

Natsu scowled at him for a good minute before breaking the silence, "Why are you still here?"

Gray's face turned red as he dug into his pockets to dig out small individually raped squares, "I didn't want you to be a dumbass. Take these in case you don't already have some. I don't need them right now."

Natsu quirked his brow at the awkwardly considerate gesture before taking the small bundle of six linked squares from Gray and shoving them in his flannel pajama pant pocket, "Anything else you need?" he asked with mild annoyance.

Gray shook his head, "No. I just saw last night when I talked to you what appeared to be going on in there… and I wanted you to be careful."

"Will do" Natsu grumbled before slowly closing the door and dropping the condoms in his night stand before crawling back into bed next to Lucy.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned to look at her and saw her hazel orbs staring right at him. After physically twitching in slight shock he turned to her with a sheepish smile, "How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"Long enough to see you put condoms in your night stand" Lucy deadpanned.

Natsu sweat dropped. This was not the good morning he was hoping for after their huge, physically intimate break through.

"I can explain…" he chuckled.

"You don't have to" Lucy yawned, "Though I should tell you that it's not needed. I do have an IUD."

"A what?"

"A thing" she simplified, "It's inside me and works for five years. Though you can't feel it."

"Nifty" he commented, trying to shrug off the awkwardness of the situation.

"Did you plan on using those this morning?" She asked him with a teasing smirk.

Natsu slightly blushed at the bold comment before smirking back, "I wasn't, but I can always have a change of heart." He responded with a toothy grin before softening his face remembering her words from yesterday, "But not until you're ready."

Lucy felt bad for chickening out on him when they were both in the heat of the moment, but there was a small alarm in her stomach that went off. Maybe it was just nerves? That could explain it. Or maybe just her virgin conscience? Not knowing what it felt like, but knowing she wasn't supposed to? Whatever it was she attributed it to nerves. Although she was proud of herself for still doing what she did to satisfy him, because although things didn't go all the way, it went far enough to make Natsu happy at least.

"You gunna get ready for work?" He asked her while turning to lay on his side and look at her.

"Mmmmm. Five more minutes" she cooed before closing her eyes and burrowing into Natsu's chest.

"Luce you can't always sleep in" he sighed with a slight chuckle while putting an arm around her waist and pulling her against him.

Some things just never would change he supposed. After fifteen more minutes (5 minutes in "Lucy time") he gently shook the blond back awake and tried to pry her out of the bed to head to the bathroom to shower.

"Want to join me?" She asked with a shy smile.

Natsu felt his throat go dry. Was she teasing him? Just last night she didn't want him to go all the way, but she was going to flaunt herself in her birthday suit where he could look but not touch? He'd die. He was sure that he wouldn't be able to keep calm in that kind of situation.

"That's ok" He smiled at her and gestured for her to go ahead, "I'll go after you."

Lucy stuck her lips out in a pout and missed the sigh of slight relief on Natsu's face when she had made her way down the hall. If she had tried to tempt him any further he wasn't sure what he would do. After having a few moments to collect himself, Natsu realized that the evidence of last night's events was still everywhere. Lucy's clothes were unceremoniously tossed on the floor, his desk chair was pushed away from the desk with a rag on the floor next to it that had small specks of white on it. He quickly put the clothes in her laundry hamper and his own clothes in his before rolling the chair back and trying to find a way to hide the towel in the laundry until he could find a way to get his dried seed out of it or dispose of it another way. After Lucy returned to the room with her hair wet, but thankfully dressed, Natsu scooted past her after giving her a quick kiss and walked to the bathroom to shower himself. Damn, she was intoxicating. Her lips lingered on his mouth and then he remember about her mouth again, and the way it felt going down on him. After stripping his clothes off he stepped into the shower, unable to control himself he grabbed his length of morning wood that had yet to go away and stroked it in the steaming water until he found his own release. He needed to locate his composure or else he'd be visiting this shower a lot more often. After stepping out and walking back to his room in a towel, he completely forgot about the fact that Lucy was in there and nearly slapped his own face for forgetting.

"Oh" he said casually as he noticed the blond eyeing him up and down, "Didn't think you'd still be in here" he said sheepishly.

"I live here now, remember?" She smirked at him knowingly.

"Well… I'll just…" he scooted to his walk in closet after grabbing a pair of boxers out of his dresser drawer and closing the door swiftly behind him without finishing his sentence.

At least there was plenty of room for him to change in there in privacy. After throwing on his clothes he emerged from the closet in a tight fitting long sleeve t-shirt and jeans. After grabbing his scarf off the back of the bedroom door and wrapping it around his neck he looked at Lucy expectantly.

"Ready?" he asked her as he flicked his head towards the door.

"mhm" she replied after unplugging her phone from the charger and walking out the door in front of him.

In one last jibe before being in front of other people he smacked Lucy's ass on her way out of the bedroom door in front of him, earning a small squeak followed by a playful scowl from her. Natsu grinned at her before walking towards the stairs. To his surprise, Lucy grabbed his hand before they descended the stair case together. It didn't go unnoticed, by anyone. The only people who visibly made visible gestures of acknowledgement were Sting and Mira. Everyone else tried their best to keep from making the situation more awkward. They were now officially sure of the two's relationship status after several weeks of confusion. No words needed to be said, or official statements made, and it seemed like no one took issue with that, except Mira.

"OMG!" She squealed, "You two are adorable today!"

Lucy had to cover her now reddening face, but still refused to let go of Natsu's hand under the pressure she now felt.

"What are you talking about?" Natsu laughed while scratching the back of his head with his unoccupied hand, "Luce is adorable every day!"

Lucy felt the shade of red on her face get one hue deeper as she looked sideways at the pinkette saying embarrassing things so easily. Rouge and Sting let small chuckles escape their lips while Laxus just let a confident smirk grace his lips. It seemed like things for them were finally falling into place the way it was supposed to. Laxus didn't feel the need to make snide remarks, since he was happy with the calm and happy aura the two of them were exuberating.

* * *

Erza was shuffling up and down the hallway moving files and paperwork to a room where they were being converted to electronic records and archived. The building was now trying to go paperless as part of Magnolia's "go green" campaign. Jellal wasn't an overzealous fanatic of global warming, but he didn't regard it as a hoax either. He felt like he would do his part, but within reason. After being specially assigned to this task since she wasn't a direct assistant or sound board operator for the band, Erza felt a little lonely working by herself. There was some guy named Hibiki who seemed to type faster than lightning with the records he'd pulled to document himself. He was her only partner, but between the careless and insincere flirting, Erza had opted for silence. She couldn't deny he was good looking, but he seemed pretty shallow inside. All she could do to pass the time was text Jellal every few hours, so as not to appear needy and give him the impression she was hard at work. Until she received an odd text from him.

 ** _Come out of your office_** she read the print on her phone screen.

 ** _What?_** she texted back, **_Aren't I supposed to be working?_**

 ** _I'm your boss_** he replied, **_You are working if I tell you you are_**

Erza quirked her brow at that last statement before quietly excusing herself from her desk and walking out of the door into the hallway where a brooding Jellal was waiting for her, leaned up against the wall.

"Come with me" he gestured, trying to sound light hearted but Erza could sense a slight unrest inside of him.

Before she realized where they were, she realized that he'd led her to an unused storage closet and closed the door and locked it behind him. Without having time to let words escape her lips, Jellal was already attached to them with his own, holding the back of her head as she rested her hands on his chest. She resisted for a moment, wondering if this was really happening, before she slowly melted against him and felt as though he were the only thing holding her upright.

"That's what you wanted to do in the car last night before you realized Mira was watching us, isn't it?" Jellal smirked with his nose brushing against hers.

Without a verbal reply, Erza turned her head sideways and lifted her lips of her own volition to his again, already missing the feel of his skin against hers. After a few moments of hungry kissing the two of them parted before they suffocated each other.

"You're all I've been thinking about since last night, and it's making me crazy. I know this is sudden" Jellal panted, "But I want to see you again… I… I _need_ to see you again."

Erza blushed unsure of how exactly she was supposed to reply to that, "Of course" she smiled.

"Dinner at my place, tomorrow night?" He tried to make it sound like a statement but still left a small amount of doubt in his voice.

"Your place?" Erza asked with hesitation.

"You've already been to it" he tried to coax her, "It's not that different from board games. It'll just involve me cooking dinner and us drinking wine this time."

He ghosted kisses up and down her cheek and neck as if it would help persuade the red head into acquiescing to his dinner invitation.

"Sounds lovely" she tried to hold back a small crack in her voice from the sensation of Jellal's lips on her neck and the regions that were tingling because of it.

"Good. Come over around 6 then, tomorrow" he smiled at her before looking out into the hallway to make sure the coast was clear before the two of them emerged guiltily from the storage closet.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Hey Luce?" Natsu stopped in the middle of singing while the two of them were recording in one of the private one on one studios.

The blond quickly pressed a few buttons to stop the recording equipment, and music that was playing through his headset to go along with his singing.

"What?" Lucy asked confused through her control room microphone that played into his sound proof both.

"Do you want to maybe, go on a date with me?" Natsu asked with a toothy grin.

"You seriously stopped an almost perfect recording to ask me that?!" Lucy wanted to practically pull her hair out.

She was both flattered and frustrated with this pink haired nuisance that seemed to know how to push _all_ her buttons. After wiping a frustrated hand over her face and groaning she pressed the talk button on her control board.

"Yes, Natsu, but we _have_ to get this recording stuff done! Stop day dreaming!"

Compared to the developments between the two, a date wasn't not particularly earth shattering to either of them with regards to a revelation about their feelings. If anything, it was long over due. Natsu wanted to smirk at her and tell her the truth though, that daydreaming was how he found his lyrics and inspiration that created the music work he was doing right now. However he just let a triumphant grin find it's way onto his face as he put his headphones back on and sang into the mic with the rhythm of the music being played into his headphones. He saw Lucy holding up one headphone pad to her ear with one hand, bobbing along to the music, while she was looking down at her control board making constant adjustments with the other hand. Natsu inwardly puffed out his chest in pride. The fact that he was able to make great music, and it was good enough for his favorite person to enjoy it with him, caused his ego to inflate even more than it already had. However once he looked down on his sheets of paper that he was given on his way to the recording room, he felt his gut flutter a bit in anticipation. The next song they were supposed to work on was a brand new one that Lucy hadn't heard yet, the one about her being his sexy drug. He'd submitted it to Erik a few weeks ago to run through the producer, but thanks to Natsu's self made demo of it they streamlined it right through. He wanted to slap himself for thinking that writing this was a good idea as if she'd never hear it, when she was his personal assistant who heard every note, every word, every emotionally dripping lyric come out of his mouth.

Lucy's face became redder with every word that left his mouth after the music started playing.

 _Sexy girl I just fell in love._

 _You should try it it's a helluva drug._

 _Like OMG you make me com, com, com-pleeeete!_

Lucy felet her breath hitch in her throat at the words, and knowing full well that Natsu was already capsizing himself in this situation he decided to make the most of it and look her directly in the eye while he was singing the rest of it into the microphone for her, hoping that she knew that this song, was in fact, about her. Then when the second verse hit, he felt it resonate with him more than it should've due to the events that had just recently happened. This is what he thought made Lucy have to sit down in the control room after he sang.

 _Sexy girl come and lay with me_

 _I'm frustrated and it's sexually_

 _Like OMG you make me com, com, com-pleeeeete!_

 _I'm just being honest we're creeping and crawling_

 _I'm kissing the top of your head_

 _We're rocking and rolling and touching and moaning, and making a mess of your bed_

 _Can someone help, she shot me dead_

 _I can't be saved, yeah!_

At this point the blond was now covering her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment. Natsu noticed and was trying to get her attention once the song had finished from inside his side of the studio. After watching her keep her face covered with only brief peaks between her fingers to see him still staring at her he realized that he wasn't going to get her to interact with him from between the other side of the glass. After the song was over, Lucy couldn't slap the 'stop recording' button fast enough. After that, she leaned forward and curled up in her office chair, unaware that Natsu had made his way out of the recording room and was standing next to her until he cleared his throat.

After peeking out from behind her hands Natsu knowingly grinned at her, "Wanna tell me why you reacted that way to a song?"

"Wanna tell me why you _wrote_ that song? And how on earthland did you write that in less than 24 hours?" Lucy shot back with her face still burning red from both her arousal and embarrassment at Natsu's words.

"I got news for you" Natsu gave her a predatory smirk as he leaned forward and rested his hands on her chair's arm rests, getting dangerously close to her face, "I wrote that song loooong before last night. I started writing that not too long after you moved in."

Lucy suddenly felt her head spin. Natsu had been watching her and looking at her that way for this long? She had no idea about how he felt since he seemed to be good at keeping his hands to himself where she was concerned. But then she remembered how visibly uncomfortable she'd seemed with his touch at first, and how even when it was evident they both had feelings for each other, she still seemed to pull away. She looked him in the eye with her embarrassment soon turning to wonder and amazement.

"That song _was_ about you, in case you were wondering." Natsu provocatively growled at her with another devilish grin before leaning in slowly, about to steal a kiss, when their recording room door was suddenly opened.

A loud cough resounded at the door before Gajeel's voice cracked like a whip, "It's great and all that you two are together now, but I don't think I need to remind you where you are right now."

Natsu stood up and crossed his arms with a scowl. It wasn't like they were half naked about to do the deed on top of the expensive tech equipment. If anything it would just be a mini make out session with light groping if anything. However he assumed that walking in on anything remotely close to that would make anyone uncomfortable enough to make assumptions about a further intention than kissing. Natsu and Lucy sheepishly smiled at each other before walking out of the recording booth towards the main room where all the band members met at the end of the day with Erik. They were happy the day was over, and Natsu, in his angst, couldn't wait to leave for his own reasons.

"Well it looks like you guys are almost done" Erik gave them a toothy grin, "You've progressed much farther along than I expected. We should be done recording by the end of January at this rate, then we can start all the general practices and rehearsals for your tour and get the press rolling, so that we can push this album as much into the public interest as possible. You're two songs dropped a little on the radio charts, but they stayed up in the top 5 for about a solid two months. They only dipped down just a few places too, so you're still going strong."

"What about us?" The girls pointed to themselves realizing that once the recording work was done they wouldn't have anything at the studio to really do.

"Don't worry" Erik laughed, "We'll have a few of you work with Cana on the sound boards for the rehearsals, and the rest of you who don't do that will have some other jobs around the building helping sort and organize some stuff for the record company. You won't be put out of work."

A few of the girls sighed in relief at the prospect of continued employment while some of the girls sighed in despair at not having a little time off, becoming spoiled by their fortunate circumstances. After Erik explained the deadlines he also let them know that they wouldn't be recording or working again until a few days after New Years. It was less than a week until Christmas and everyone was even more excited for the holidays.

* * *

Natsu whined fitfully next to a sleeping Lucy. After they got home Lucy was content to just watch movies and play video games with Natsu until she felt tired and resigned herself to sleep. Natsu tried to follow her example, but felt way too pent up. After that one night with Lucy he felt both satisfied and longing for more. He knew he would lose his mind until he finally went all the way with her. However the problem was that he knew she wasn't ready, and didn't know if she ever would be. After finally giving up on sleep, Natsu woke up and grabbed his laptop, trying to shop for things and Christmas presents last minute online. Did Lucy like games? jewelry? beauty products? was she allergic to anything? He wanted to slam his head on the desk at how he hadn't gotten her anything yet.

Natsu settled on jewelry since he noticed that Lucy's humble circumstances had left her without the luxury of owning something like jewelry, beyond the occasional costume jewelry of simple plastic ornaments on non-precious metal chains. After scrolling for what felt like hours he saw something that caught his eye. Lucy wasn't one for flashy displays of bling and wealth, but he knew she was definitely sentimental. There was this thing that looked like a charm bracelet but was called a "pandora" bracelet which to him just meant "brand name charm bracelet." The price definitely signified that to him, but he knew that women were into this kind of thing and honestly he hadn't been spending much of his paycheck at all and could easily afford to by her armfuls of these bracelets if that's what made her happy. After selecting the bracelet itself and requesting to have her name engraved on the clasp he then clicked through menu's of "beads" and "charms" to pick just a few sentimentally relevant ones to adorn the bracelet so that it wouldn't be empty when he gave it to her. Natsu looked over his shoulder to make sure that the blond was still asleep. She had a bad habit of popping up and being awake whenever he _didn't_ want her to see something.

* * *

"You know they're going to know something's up if I stay over here too long?" Gajeel yawned at the blue haired book worm in his lap who incidentally had her nose buried in a new novel while using Gajeel as her personal arm chair while sitting on her bed.

"So what you big lug? You know you like reading over my shoulder" Levy smirked at him, insinuating about their newfound common interest in books.

The two of them had secretly been spending more time together outside of the studio, but they tended to seclude themselves off like the antisocial peas in a pod they were, so no one tended to see them together enough to draw conclusions, yet. So far their relationship wasn't too terribly deep considering that Levy had just barely managed to kiss the man about a week ago. Gajeel was fine with it since he honestly liked the way Levy mentally challenged him, keeping him on his toes. He was more of an intellectual than people tended to give him credit for. Levy didn't even think of him that way until their in depth discussion of literary classics and his hearty opinion on many books that she'd had no idea he'd read.

"Hn" Gajeel grunted as Levy's sassy response before planting a kiss on her shoulder blade, working his way up her neck, "I really do need to get going though shrimp. I haven't done all my christmas shopping and tomorrow's going to be retail hell since it'll be the day before Christmas eve.

"You waited this long to do that?" Levy scowled at him hypocritically.

She too had some last minute present shopping to do and she planned on dragging Lucy with her for opinions as well as helping the blond with her ongoing struggle to find the right gift for Natsu. After pouting for a few minutes once Gajeel had left her rom, Levy closed her book and decided to get some shut-eye, so she could have an early start on last minute shopping tomorrow.

* * *

"Luce what do you think of this?" Levy asked to her friend.

They had divulged from their normal Christmas shopping to go do some self-shopping in Victoria's Secret. Lucy looked at the flimsy black lace pra and pantie set and raised a brow at her bold friend.

"Trying to diversify your whitie tighties I see" Lucy sneered mischievously, "No doubt for someone else, right?"

Levy blushed indignantly before retorting, "Can't a girl get something for herself?"

"Sure" Lucy gave her a knowing grin as the blond looked over at a christmas themed lingerie set herself. It was a giant ribbon meant to cover her cleavage then the ribbon dipped down to cover her groin before turning into a g-string in the back.

It was a stretchy one piece but Lucy suddenly blushed at a devious and rather genuine Christmas present idea. She couldn't find a single thing for Natsu, so she bought these for herself and decided that her wearing them would be his gift. A very bold move considering some of their recent barriers being broken.

"Lucy…" Levy gasped as she saw her friend take the themed lingerie off the rack in her size to go try on, "You can't be serious…"

"Why? Can't a girl get something for herself?" Lucy mocked her friend.

"But Luce… you're… you're a…."

"So?" she contorted her mouth in a displeased line at her friend's reservations on her behalf, "it'll just make the gift more special…"

"If you say so" Levy sighed, "You're a grown woman, and I won't lie that you two have been magnetized to each other since day one. This doesn't actually surprise me all that much."

Lucy tried the lingerie on over her own current underwear to make sure it fit without putting her uncovered lady bits on it just yet. After seeing that it hugged her curves and left very little the imagination she couldn't help but fantasize about what Natsu's reaction would be. After a few minutes Levy knocked on her dressing room door and said that she was headed to the checkout counter. Lucy scurried to put her regular clothes back on and slung the provocative present wrapping getup over her arm with a few other purchases of pajama pants and some regular bikini cut underwear to replace some of her more worn out and fraying pieces of underwear. After the two girls left the store they had their pink bags in hand and were headed towards Barnes and Noble for Levy to oogle the book she wanted again to see if it was cheaper at a different store. But as fate would have it, the two girls ran into two people they weren't expecting. Cana and Natsu were walking through the mall with a disgruntled Laxus behind them. At the sight of Lucy, Natsu came bounding over to come see her, unaware that she could potentially have something he wasn't supposed to see.

"Luce!" he called with a wave approaching the two girls, "Whatcha shopping for?"

After asking that question Levy covered her mouth in embarrassment for her friend before Natsu looked at the name on their pink bags and instantly became way more interested in their purchases. He tried to look over and into the bag before Lucy hugged it to her chest defensively and turned to face partially away from him.

"None of your business!" She grumbled with an angry pout.

"Ohhhhhh" Natsu growled a little lower than normal, making sensations crawl under Lucy's skin, "You got that kinda stuff?"

"No!" she shrieked, not noticing Laxus and Cana making their way over to them as well.

Desperate to keep Natsu from prying into the bag, she instantly pulled out a pair of plain bikini cut underwear with hearts all over them, "See?! Nothing interesting!" she blushed furiously.

"No one wants to see that" Laxus scowled at her, "Why on earthland would you show someone else your underwear?"

"Oh boy" Cana smirked lecherously, "Guess you'll see the other stuff she has in that bag later, won't you? But until then we have other things to do."

Lucy was so glad that Cana had dragged the pink haired mess away before she really lost it. Then a realization dawned on her. If she was embarrassed about Natsu being in close proximity to the bag that even held the garment, how the hell was she going to wear it for him? Levy put a comforting hand on Lucy's shoulder, bringing the blond back down to earthland to collect her thoughts, as they both sighed together.

"Maybe we should play it safe and avoid everyone else that we see?" Levy asked sheepishly.

Lucy just nodded as they headed into a few gift stores. There was a glass shop that had an actual glass blower behind a protective window making glassworks. All the beautiful sculptures and ornaments around the store made Lucy awe in wonder. Then suddenly she was filled with dread at the though of bringing Natsu in here with so many breakable objects in such close proximity.

"Wow" Levy breathed, "These are amazing.

The two girls were especially drawn to a display case that held glass dragons. They were every size, shape, color, and position. Some were breathing fire.

"Lovely, aren't they?" A kind old woman smiled behind a counter, "We can do custom pieces too, but sadly they won't be ready till after Christmas since we've got a huge workload already."

Lucy nodded in acknowledgement before asking "What about engravings on the glass? Could that be done before Christmas?"

"That can be done before you leave the store!" the woman smiled enthusiastically, "Engravings are simple, it's the main structure, shape, sculpting, and repeated cooling process with the actual glass objects themselves that takes much longer."

"Can I do an engraving for this dragon?" Lucy pointed in the case.

"Luce I thought you got him a gift already?" Levy smiled coyly.

"One more doesn't hurt" Lucy smiled, "What if he doesn't like the other gift?"

"Oh he'll like the other gift" Levy snorted without a doubt in her mind.

The old woman came and opened the case so Lucy could point to what she wanted. There was a glass red dragon, perched on a giant rock, the whole sculpture as big as a basketball. After walking over the woman held out a note card for Lucy to describe what she wanted done to the sculpture, and the woman read the note over before smiling fondly and taking the structure back to have her son engrave it. Not even twenty minutes later the woman had boxed it up and even wrapped it for Lucy before handing her the heavy object.

"You realize he's going to break that in a week right? Maybe less" Levy chided her.

"Maybe" she was starting to have slight buyers remorse, "But it's worth it."

"What did you have them write on it?" Levy tried to pry.

Lucy looked at her friend with a mocking smile, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Don't make me pry that from your arms and read it myself" she teased in return.

"You'll find out when he does" Lucy sighed with a happy gleam in her eyes.

Levy resigned herself to letting it go and the two girls chattered while finishing up their last minute rounds around the stores before returning home. It was definitely going to be rowdy at the house tonight trying to wrap everything without other people snooping on each other to spoil the surprise. No doubt there were going to be some gag gifts under the tree this year.

* * *

"Oh," Laxus cleared his throat so that the current occupants in the living room would hear him while they were shaking things already placed under the tree, "I forgot to mention, Erik called me earlier today and there's a record label Christmas Party tomorrow night for Christmas Eve."

Everyone perked up confused at this, "And Erik didn't think to mention this sooner so we all had formal dresses?" Levy chimed in sardonically.

Laxus pinched the skin between his eyes before explaining, "He's had that taken care of. Mavis gave him all you guys' measurements and your custom tailored dresses will be delivered tomorrow afternoon in just enough time."

The girls all looked at each other wide eyed, "He really footed the bill on that?" Erza asked in disbelief.

"No" Laxus corrected her, "The president did."

Erza blushed at his kindness. No doubt he was trying to get on her good side since she was having dinner at his place that night. In fact, once she looked at the clock she cursed the time. She only had an hour and a half to shower, put make up on, do her hair, and make her way to his penthouse apartment before 7pm. Or was it 6pm? Shit. She couldn't remember. After quickly rushing out the door back to her own house next door, she made short work of removing her yoga pants and long sleeve sweater. Once the water was pouring over her body she felt a little of her anxiety melting away down the drain along with her BO. After putting on a little black dress, some two inch modest heels, and a nice side braid and smokey eyed make up with Mira's help, she looked in the mirror and almost didn't recognize herself.

"Go get em' tiger" Mira winked at her from behind using the reflection of the mirror, "But make sure to let me know if you're coming home or not!" Mira scolded her before making her exit from Erza's room.

After the red head had taken the liberty of borrowing one of the sedan's parked in the girls' house's driveway, she headed towards Jellal's upscale penthouse suite. No doubt a few minutes late. She seemed to have a bad time management habit. Upon stepping in the elevator she felt her nerves jittering. After ringing his doorbell she waited until the intercom came on.

"Hello?" Jellal's familiar voice came through the speaker.

"Yes" Erza's voice squeaked as she cleared her throat to try and regular her pitch, "Yes, it's me."

"Erza!" Jellal said happily, "Come in."

With that the door made a slight buzzing noise as Erza gripped the handle and let herself in. She set her purse down on the entryway table and then made her way to the kitchen where she saw Jellal in a button up shirt and black dress slacks. He seemed to dress up for her as well. He cleaned up nice.

"Sorry I'm late" she smiled nervously.

"Foods not done, so you're right on time" Jellal smiled from over his shoulder going slightly wide eyed after catching an eyeful of her, "Go ahead and have a seat here at the island" he nodded to the little island with bar stools pulled up to it in the middle of his kitchen.

Erza scurried over before sitting sideways on the stool so she could rest an arm on the counter, "So what are you making? Smells delicious."

"That's always a good sign" Jellal laughed, "It's an oven baked chicken stuffed with a ricotta spinach sauce and topped with romano cheese. When it bakes it should have a nice crunchy with a rich gooey-ness to it as well underneath. Then for the sides I'm making a mashed, pan seared cauliflower cakes with some seasonings in it that you can top with some butter if you want. Oh, and of course, I made some nice rigatoni pasta that goes with a family marinara recipe."

"Wow" Erza stared at him wide eyed and rather speechless.

"Here, have some wine" Jellal said the one thing every woman loved to hear.

Erza didn't hesitate to sip the dark brew and instantly enjoying both the fragrance and aftertaste. She felt like one of those wine snobs that visited Tuscany on vacation just to taste that year's vintage.

"How do you like it?" Jellal asked curiously as he was sprinkling some oregano into the marinara.

"It's… tart, but tastes like spiced fruit?" Erza said confused with a confused smirk.

Jellal smiled at her, "Yup. That's the Chateau Cos d'Estournel they bottled… five years ago? I think."

Erza wanted to choke on her own spit, "What?"

"It's part of my vintage collection" Jellal gave her a flirtatious smile as if he were reading her thoughts, "You're worth it, I think" he teased her.

"That winery is like… hundreds of dollars per bottle?!" Erza had to force herself not to shriek.

"So?" Jellal asked, "I got it to use for an occasion like this."

"How many women do you seduce with your snazzy wines then?" Erza crossed her arms across her chest while raising a questioning brow.

"None, yet" Jellal smirked back at her.

He could tell that this evening was panning out to be very interesting. After assembling all the dishes into larger servings bowls he plated both he and Erza's food then put some garnishes on it before carrying the plates over to a smaller table in the nook off to the side of his kitchen. A single window by the table that overlooked the city down below. After gesturing her to come sit, Erza brought herself with her glass of wine over to the dinner table and sat herself down, trying to remember how she was supposed to cross her legs in a dress. Jellal quickly snatched the almost full wine bottle that he'd used to fill Erza's glass and brought it over to pour himself some.

"So" he let out a breath of air after sitting down and making sure the place setting was just right, "How was your day?"

Erza was rather taken aback by all his effort. The small two person table had a very nice embroidered white cloth with a small glass vase that held a few sprigs of lavender in it. It both decorated and perfumed the table. Then beside the vase was a tea candle on each side of it in small decorated glass containers. The dish-ware they were using she could tell was very nice Lenux china, some of the nicest gold rimmed plating she'd seen in a while. After realizing she hadn't answered Jellal she shook her head to bring herself back to the present instead of gawking at everything.

"Lovely" she said with a smile, "Especially since about…" Erza looked at her wrist jokingly as if there was a watch, "About 7pm tonight."

"Is that so?" Jellal chuckled, "Well what made 7pm so special for you?"

"I got to watch a professional chef prepare my food while sipping on expensive wine."

"Oh, that does sound nice" Jellal mocked her, "But really, how have you been?"

"Busy" Erza sighed, finally dropping their little sarcastic charade of a conversation, "Those electronic record conversions are killing me."

Jellal smiled a bit seeing her open up and speak more casually, "Do you need some time off?" he joked since the office was closed till after New Years.

"Yeah I do, but my boss is a slave driver, I'm not sure he'd let me" Erza smirked back, starting up their little sardonic game again.

Jellal leaned back in his chair swirling the wine in his glass before taking a sip, "You sure about that? I heard he was a pretty nice guy."

"Maybe" Erza sighed, "I heard he's got a really nice penthouse sweet and brings all the pretty girls he sees up there."

"Really? I heard he was a social recluse and hadn't dated anyone in almost a decade" He watched her with a calculated glance to gauge her reaction.

Erza choked on her wine a little before breaking their facade and asking, "What?"

"Yea" he tried to chuckle casually, "I haven't dated since back in college. I'm almost 30 Erza, or did you forget that I was a bit older than you?"

Erza blushed as she tried to do math in her head, but found that the wine was making it surprisingly difficult. She was around Mira's age coming in at 25 years old. Jellal was always a bit older than her, but she guessed that way back then it didn't seem to matter much to her.

"Well, that's something I guess I didn't realize about you" she smiled, "And social recluse?"

Jellal scratched his head, "Aside from kinda mandatory company gatherings or business exchanges I don't really 'socialize' much for fun, at least, not until recently."

Erza slightly blushed that she was being told that she was worth breaking his rut of anti-social practices. She realized though that they'd been talking while the food was going cold. Without wasting a moment, Erza immediately went for the pasta first. She was a sucker for carbs. Anything but disappointment flooded her thoughts as the amazing marinara coated her mouth in an array of different flavors, no doubt the family recipe spices. After that she dug into the cauliflower that she realized Jellal had already put butter on, knowing full well that she loved the stuff. She felt the creaminess and the surprisingly rich consistency compare to mashed potatoes, but crispy on the outside since it was pan seared.

"Jellal this is wonderful" Erza had to cover her mouth as she spoke between bites.

Jellal let a gracious and humble smile grace his lips, "I'm really not that good of a cook. If it weren't for some old recipes I found or well, inherited, I wouldn't know what the heck to do. I'm not very original when it comes to cooking."

"Original or not, this is delicious" Erza smiled.

"Wait till you see dessert" Jellal gave her a devilish grin.

He'd done some homework on the red head through her friend to find out what her all-time Achilles heel was with regards to food to make sure he absolutely blew her mind. He wasn't disappointed when he asked Mirajane and the silver haired she-demon was definitely into playing match maker and couldn't stop spewing information about her. After a few minutes of eating and their plates were empty, Jellal sat back and refilled Erza's wine glass along with his own, slowly draining the bottle's contents. Erza wouldn't lie that she felt the wine pulsing through her system like liquid courage. It took more self restraint to keep herself in her seat and out of Jellal's personal space from across the table.

"Think you're ready for dessert?" Jellal asked with a toothy smile after a few more minutes of conversation.

"If I'd known there was dessert I would've eaten that first" Erza almost laughed, giving away her insane love of sweets. Yup, the wine was getting to her.

Jellal shook his head with a bemused smirk before getting out of his chair and heading towards the fridge. He pulled out a beautiful cake that he'd had custom ordered. Erza was under the false impression that he had made this himself as well until he clarified. The immaculate 3 layer cake was like something out of Erza's fantasies. The cream cheese frosting had beautiful identical white colored icing patterns over the top of the base layer of white giving it a three dimensional feel. The strawberries were placed on top in little pools of swirled frosting as well. The bottom was trimmed with a type of red strawberry jam. When Jellal cut into the cake to serve her the first slice her mouth watered. Between each layer of cake was an equal part of cream cheese frosting and strawberry preserves. The white cake looked moist as it almost crumbled onto her plate. The first bite she had she could only describe as clouds of sugar, strawberries, hopes, and dreams. Jellal chuckled at her facial expressions as she slowly chewed the cake with her mouth closed. Little did Erza the know, the aftertaste of the cake would be Jellal's lips.

He was unable to distance himself from the red head any longer due to the wine and her betraying expressions of lust, innocence, and embarrassment the whole dinner he'd made for them. Jellal was able to get small hints of the cake's frosting on her lips as he pinned Erza between the kitchen counter and himself. Due to his swift and rather abrupt movement, he'd expected some kind of reaction, a push, and small shove or whack, but Erza had unconditionally allowed him to gently press his face to hers, with his breath against her skin and his arms slowly snaking around her waste. Despite the wine driving his mind insane, it was obvious that there was no angst and hunger in the kiss beyond an emotional connection and a heightened level of adoration of pure unadulterated affection for the woman in his arms. After their storage room escapade, Erza had half expected a kiss, but leave it to Jellal to surprise her with making it the last course of their meal.

After parting with some slight heavy breaths, the two smiled with stupidity at each other. Neither had words for the other to describe the feeling they both were having. It took Erza a double take at the cake to realize scribbled in strawberry jam that she'd missed before were the cursive letters _"Merry Christmas Erza"._

* * *

 ** _To Be Continued..._**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

Gray was sitting on the front porch of the house. Between Rogue and Sting yelling at each other while playing some stupid game called Disk Jam on the playstation and Laxus and Mira's old couple bickering he felt suffocated. Natsu and Lucy were of course, in their own room upstairs alone, again. Gray scoffed inwardly, grateful that he gave Natsu those condoms. _"That idiot doesn't need to contribute to anyone's gene pool"_ Gray thought bitterly. Kagura and Yukino were of course with Sting and Rogue inside. He wasn't sure where Gajeel and Levy went but it's not like he cared. They were probably at the girls' house with Juvia next door. Erza had left like a bat out of hell earlier that evening, so he knew she wasn't around anywhere. With a sigh Gray embraced both the winter chill and the well earned solitude. He wasn't a very social creature and the holidays were especially a drain for him. Already not used to being around so many people, having to also be nice to them was a strain. He couldn't wait for Christmas and New Years to be over.

Across the lawn he heard the clack of a door opening and closing and snapped out of his thoughts, thinking he'd see Gajeel walking back across the side yard to the house. To his surprise, he saw Juvia standing on her own porch looking up at the sky. Most shocking to Gray, she hadn't looked at him or come running over since he was out there by himself. He quirked a brow wondering if something was wrong, but not working up the nerve to raise his voice loud enough to ask from where sat nearly 20 yards away next door. After a few more moments he saw what looked like a tear streak down her cheek. It was hard to tell between the moonlight and the dim porch lighting what was reflecting off her face, but he wasn't sure what else it could be. He struggled internally over what he was supposed to do. He wasn't particularly in the mood to get groped, but he also couldn't just ignore her. It was hard to shrug off the fact that he felt responsible for her because of all the time they spent together and the obvious support and love she gave to him, even if he was a jerk and left it un-reciprocated. Once he saw a few more flecks fall down her face he was certain it was tears and he couldn't just sit there anymore. With a huff of annoyance at himself, Gray stood up quietly and tried to make his way over to their porch. To his surprise, Juvia had no idea he was outside until he stood at the base of the stairs and coughed up at her. She jerked her head towards him and immediately looked away, smashing her jacket sleeves against her face in an attempt to dry her tears.

"Gray-sama, Juvia wasn't-" she cut herself off sniffling, unable to finish whatever lie she was about to pass off to him to explain her current emotional state.

Gray let out a huff of air that hung in front of him like smoke before trekking up the stairs to stand next to her, "Come here" he grumbled with slight reluctance as he held his arms slightly out to the side, giving her an opening.

Juvia was hesitant, sensing his mild discomfort and the underlying sense that he didn't actually want to hug her, but the need for emotional support won out. She slowly walked over and gently wrapped her arms around his waist as his own stayed slack by his sides, careful not to squeeze too hard since she didn't want him to pull away. Gently resting her face on his chest, she kept sniffling, trying to stop herself to save whatever dignity she had left.

"You don't have to feel bad. I don't like seeing you cry, so you can hold onto me if you want." Gray felt his cheeks go pink at his own words.

Without being told twice, Juvia immediately tightened her embrace as she strangled sobs in her throat, breathing in his comforting essence and praying that it'd never leave. After a few moments, realizing that Juvia wasn't trying to molest him but genuinely wanted comfort, Gray wrapped his own arms around her waist and rested his head on top of hers. Once her sniffling stopped after what Gray felt were hours, he could feel her grip on him loosen slightly and her weight tipping around like she was unstable. He let got of her with one of his arms to dig his phone out of his pocket and check the time. They'd been standing there for half an hour. No wonder he felt his own legs start to get antsy.

"Juvia" Gray said her name calmly, "Are you ok?"

The bluenette nodded slowly before pulling slightly away from Gray. He could see the makeup slightly smudged around on her face and felt a small pang in his gut that he couldn't quite put words to. Without skipping a beat he pulled a black handkerchief he kept in his back pocket out and handed it to her. Juvia quickly accepted it before turning her back to him and trying to dry her face while swiping away stray streaks of mascara. Once she turned around she tried to give him a smile, but between her puffy eyes and reddened skin it was almost pitiful. Juvia held the handkerchief out to give back to him, but Gray just shook his head, gesturing her to keep it.

"Why were you crying?" Gray finally asked.

Juvia looked back down at her feet as she turned to face the front yard, leaning against the rail, "It's... it's silly. There's no reason."

"Those weren't crocodile tears" Gray huffed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and stood next to her, "You looked distressed."

"It's difficult to explain, and makes Juvia feel very childish" Juvia gave another crooked smile, resisting the urge to latch herself back onto Gray.

Gray shrugged before turning to walk back down the stairs, "I'm not going to keep standing up, so you can either come tell me or don't tell me. Your choice."

Juvia raised her brow at the indirect invitation Gray offered to her. Normally the brooding ice cube wouldn't hold a conversation that was longer than a few minutes with her, but here he was asking her questions, being genuinely curious about her. Juvia wasn't sure what caused his change of heart, but she knew she'd be silly to pass it up.

"We can sit inside if you want" Juvia gestured towards the front door of the house.

"Aren't Gajeel and Levy in there?" Gray asked with a slight scowl.

Even though there were fewer people here than over at the other house, he didn't really want to have a heart to heart with Juvia with that cretin lurking around. He'd never hear the end of it.

"They're upstairs" Juvia clarified, "He often comes over to see Levy and they read upstairs."

"Do they now?" Gray asked with a shit eating smirk.

He'd have to store that information for later. Juvia clasped a hand over her mouth in embarrassment at what she'd just divulged, realizing that it wasn't really open information for her to give out. After slumping over, Gray let out a hearty laugh. Juvia hadn't really heard him laugh or smile much before. Occasionally he did around Natsu, but she'd never been the source of his laughter before, so that small achievement made her twist her lips into the best imitation of a smile she'd made all night. After walking inside, Gray quietly closed the door behind him. He kicked off his boots by the door before walking into their kitchen. Juvia was about to follow him and walk in behind him, but he told her to just sit in the living room. It didn't take Juvia long to realize that he was fishing around their kitchen for something. Once she poked her head in again she was sure of it.

"What are you looking for?" She asked with a curious face.

Gray whipped his head around, embarrassed that he didn't know where anything was, "Hot chocolate."

Juvia smiled a bit before walking over to a small set of cabinets by the kitchen table and pulled out a little box that had packets of hot chocolate in them. Once Gray took them from her he filled a little kettle full of water and set it on the stove before asking Juvia where the mugs were also. She had to stifle a giggle at him. The poor guy was trying to be nice and do everything himself, but unfortunately it was hard to prepare anything in someone's unfamiliar kitchen. Gray shooed her away after finding everything he needed and Juvia sat down at the little breakfast nook. It was a little table that had seating for four people that was in the style of two benches like a booth table at a restaurant. The padding was much more casual though. The wood was white and the cushions had pastel striped coloring on them. After scooting inside of the booth, Juvia was surprised when Gray scooted into the same side as her, setting her mug down in front of her and resting his head on one of his hand, looking at her expectantly.

"I'm guessing since you invited me inside that you're going to tell me what's wrong."

"Now Juvia feels even more silly" Juvia blushed as she cupped her cheeks with her hands, "You're making such a fuss over a few tears."

Gray scowled a her a little, "A few tears? Juvia we were out there for half an hour. And all I did was make you powdered hot chocolate..."

Juvia slapped her cheeks a few times to make sure that she wasn't dreaming that Gray was sitting this close, drinking hot chocolate with her, striking up a conversation.

"Well..." she began, "Sometimes Juvia gets really lonely, and sometimes that loneliness makes Juvia feel very afraid for no reason, then she feels suffocated, and eventually she starts panicking..." Juvia trailed off as she looked down at her hot chocolate, tracing the rim of the mug.

"You were having a panic attack?" Gray asked with raised brows, but genuine concern at understanding what she was explaining.

Juvia wasn't really sure that blanket statement really explained every detail of what she experience, but she nodded at Gray's understanding of the situation. Gray looked away from her and down at his own mug of hot chocolate, unsure of how to respond.

"Do you take medication?" He finally asked.

"No" Juvia shook her head, "Juvia's never been able to afford a doctor."

At this Gray truly felt the weight of his privilege growing up in a home with Makarov where budgets were tight, but needs were met. When Natsu was having his own psychotic episodes, Makarov not only allowed him to see a specialist, but insisted on it. Gray too had some minor counseling sessions due to some of his own past issues, though it never required any medication. Most of what happened to him was traumatic, but it he was able to talk through it and gain a healthy perspective. He didn't even want to consider what he'd be like if he'd never had access to any kind of care like that.

"What?" Gray finally leaked out, "Why?"

Juvia's face went red as she gave a scrunched up expression on her face before explaining, "Gray-sama remembers where Juvia worked before now, yes? Well... much like Lucy and everyone else, making rent was much more important."

Gray wanted to slap himself for forgetting that important detail. Obviously someone in that kind of job position wouldn't be making appointments for a doctor unless it was life threatening. He had to wonder whether or not she had ever seen a specialist before that though, when she had a family. He wasn't sure since she didn't even know how to explain what she was having as a panic attack. She probably hadn't heard the term before either. However the question was quickly answered when Juvia went into the next part of her explanation.

"Juvia doesn't remember anything except the past four or five years. She had a very bad accident, and all the doctors had was her driver's license to give her her name. Her parents never came, and I guess she never had any friends either."

At this Gray had to hold back his own emotions from flooding over his levees of self control. Is that why Juvia talked about herself in the third person? Because there was an accident and she felt like she wasn't actually "Juvia" but an impostor in her own skin? No wonder she had anxiety and panic attacks. Gray truly had no idea and wanted to slap himself for being so arrogant as to not even bother talking to her enough to figure these things out. It shouldn't have taken him 2 months to learn these things from her with the amount of time they spent together. Hell, even Gajeel and Levy who seemed to fight like cats and dogs could tell you about one another more than Gray could probably talk about Juvia.

"How do you cope?" Gray asked curiously, wondering if there was even more to her.

"Juvia shouldn't say" the bluenette surprised him with her response, or lack there of, "Juvia manages to get by, even if it's not the best way."

"You aren't doing drugs are you?" Gray asked with heavy suspicion.

"No!" Juvia quickly corrected him, "It's legal. It's probably just not very good."

"Alcohol?" Gray asked again.

Juvia shook her head without a verbal response that time. By that point Gray had figured out that he wasn't going to get much more out of her in regards to her coping mechanisms. It was obvious though that she was indeed very alone and very insecure. After looking down at his mug, Gray realized that his hot chocolate was almost gone and so was Juvia's. He checked the time on his phone once again and saw that he'd been here much too late for his liking.

"I think it's best I head back" Gray sighed.

He wasn't trying to ditch Juvia, but he valued his sleep. Most of his sighing was because he felt like a douche bag for saying that he needed to leave. Despite his past treatment of Juvia, he was feeling very protective and worried about her.

"Wait" Juvia said as she lightly grabbed onto his shirt sleeve, but quickly withdrew her hand once she realized what she was doing.

Gray for once didn't pull back from her or swat at her touch as he turned to her with a quirked brow, "What?"

Juvia fidgeted from where she was sitting a moment before answering with her own question, "Can Gray-sama stay until Juvia is asleep?"

"And how would I do that?" Gray gave her a confused and slightly apprehensive look.

"Just stay with Juvia until she's asleep... that's it... I promise..."

There was something in Juvia's voice that made Gray break a little for her. It was obvious that she didn't necessarily share all this information with many other people since she'd been so reluctant to tell Gray about it, and he seemed to be the sole obsession of her existence. She was vulnerable and he could tell from the way her pupils seemed to be constricting smaller and smaller that another panic attack was starting to set in. He'd seen Natsu have one enough times to know what tunnel vision looked like. After her breathing seemed to get irregular Gray gave in and nodded as he grabbed onto Juvia's hand and led her out of the kitchen towards the stairs then let go of her hand so she could show him to where her room was. Juvia slowly plodded in front of Gray, gripping the hand rail with white knuckles as she used the wall for support to get to her room. Gray was slightly surprised at the amount of energy and physical stability this seemed to take out of her.

"Do you, need me to step out so you can change?" Gray asked hesitantly as Juvia shook her head.

"Juvia is fine in these clothes. Sweat pants and t-shirts are plenty comfortable."

Once she removed her jacket, he could see that she was indeed in very comfortable clothing. He was relieved that he didn't have to leave her to her own devices since she looked close to passing out, but Gray wasn't about to help her get dressed either. After she turned her lights off and crawled onto her bed, Gray crawled on top of it next to her. He sat up with his back propped up by a few pillows against the head board while Juvia rested her head near his hip and slowly allowed her hand to rest at the top of his abs while slowly closing her eyes, trying to regular her breathing. Gray was rather uncomfortable at first with allowing Juvia to fall asleep on him, but soon he was slowly running his hands through the locks of her hair and gently touching her skin. Normally he would withdraw his touching, since normal logic would reason that it would disturb Juvia and keep her from sleep. However he seemed to have the opposite effect on the bluenette. With each touch of his hand he could feel her breathing even, and her weight slowly sink further against him and the mattress. After almost another half and hour, he reasoned that she was asleep, or close enough to being asleep, that he could leave her room and head back home. After untangling himself from her carefully, he made sure her comforter was tucked back around her shoulders to keep her warm before replacing where he was laying before with one of her large pillows so her arm could rest on the plush fabric instead. With one last look over his shoulder, Gray left her room and quietly closed the door. Once he was back out in the hall he had to keep himself from shouting as he instantly caught sight of both Gajeel and Levy walking down the hall.

"What the-" Gajeel asked him before Gray held his finger to his lips, indicating Gajeel should be quiet.

"I just got her to sleep" Gray scowled, "Don't fuck it up."

"Did you fuck _her_ up?" Gajeel asked with a quirked brow.

If Levy wasn't standing next to him, Gray would've punched the shit out of Gajeel and watch him tumble down the flight of stairs.

"No" he hissed, "It's... complicated."

"Complicated my ass" Gajeel grunted before Levy slapped his arm with a genuine scowl.

The other resident bluenette wasn't privy to all of Juvia's issues, but all the girls were somewhat aware of her lapse in emotional stability from time to time. No doubt that's what Gray was just dealing with. Levy gave him an apologetic smile mixed with a quiet thanks before shoving Gajeel towards the stairs. Gray followed behind them towards the front door. After slipping his boots and jacket back on, the ice cube headed back towards the boys' house to get some shut eye.

"Hey" Gajeel ended up catching up to him between the two houses, "Seriously what the fuck were you doing?"

"None of your damn business" Gray clenched his teeth, "And don't go spewing about it either, cause I know you're over there a lot shit head. Whatever you try and levy against me as black mail is collateral now. Say a word and it's mutually assured destruction."

Gajeel held his hands up in mock surrender before admitting, "Levy and I are hanging out, but if you don't want me to say anything about you I won't. I just wanted to know what was up. Obviously what's up is your heightened sensitivity and need to defend yourself."

"Can it" Gray grunted, kicking snow into Gajeel's face before walking up the stairs to the house.

* * *

"Oh my god" Erza gasped as she sat up in someone else's bed.

Frantically, she tried to straiten out her dress and find her shoes. Where were her shoes?! She was internally screaming and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. As soon as she walked out of what she assumed was the bedroom door she ran smack into what felt like a hidden wall before falling backwards on her ass. Standing there, as dumbfounded as she was, was Jellal with a glass of water and aspirin in his hand.

"Well good morning" he almost laughed, "I see you're _very_ awake."

"This isn't funny" she almost growled, "Why am I still here?! Mira's seriously going to kill me this time."

"I called" Jellal tried to calm her down with his hands on her shoulders, "Last night I called and said you'd be staying here. It turns out the wine was maybe a bit too strong for you, and I didn't want you driving home."

"But that's-"

"My bed" Jellal finished her sentence, "Which I didn't sleep in last night. I was out on the sofa." He pointed with a thumb over his shoulder, "Relax, every thing's fine Erza."

Erza lifted a hand to her head, feeling it spinning with both emotions and last night's alcohol. She let Jellal gently guide her to the foot of the bed so she could sit and take the water and aspirin from him. After ingesting it she looked over to him with a face of mixed emotions. She woke up startled, but she had by no means blacked out. Fully remembering last night's events, she began to try and process her feelings about it all. She definitely liked Jellal, as more than a friend, but she wasn't sure if that's what last night was.

"So..." Jellal broke the awkward silence, "Do you have an escort for the Christmas Eve party tonight?"

Erza quirked her brow, "Escort?"

"I mean... if you aren't going with anyone else."

"I mean, I was planning on going with Mira, Juvia, Lev-"

"Not as a friend Erza, as a date."

Erza blushed at Jellal's bluntness, while admiring how he still kept that amused spark in his eye while talking to her.

"Well when you put it like that," Erza began twiddling her thumbs, "I guess I'm not going with anyone yet."

"Then would you like to accompany me?" Jellal asked with a smirk at having to ask his question again.

Erza puffed out her cheeks in thought for a few seconds before looking over to him with a tired smile, "Sure" she breathed out.

Jellal smiled before he flopped back on the bed, his feet still on the floor, "Now that that's settled, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Your dates include room service?" Erza chuckled lightly.

Jellal laughed at her joke before sitting back up with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "What? You don't like breakfast in bed?"

Erza playfully slapped his arm at the insinuation before leaning her head onto his shoulder for support. She hadn't completely shaken off the effects of last night's wine, and also loved the way his body let out a strong and natural smell that was unique to him. It wasn't body odor, but what she would affectionately refer to as "morning musk."

"I don't know if you'll like them, But I can make some mean banana pancakes" Jellal smirked, "With some walnuts or pecans, depending on your preference."

"Banana pancakes sound amazing" Erza drolled at the prospect of food, "But you can keep the nuts to yourself" she smirked at that last part.

Her joke wasn't lost on Jellal as he wagged his eyebrows, refusing to make any promises on that. After he walked out of the room, Erza took a moment to check her cell phone to make sure he had in fact called Mira, and also freshen up her own appearance.

* * *

Natsu yawned as he sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking over at the clock on the night stand. It was almost lunch. He was surprised that he hadn't woken up yet, but he noticed there was an empty space next to him. Lucy was already awake before him and that was definitely odd. He looked around his room, thinking she would be lurking somewhere reading a book or writing in her journal. Instead he was greeted by silence and an empty room. After scooting out of the bed he set his feet down on the cold wood floor before migrating over to his desk to pick up his phone where it was charging. After unplugging it something caught his eye. He noticed Lucy's leather bound journal sitting on her desk next to his, opened to today's date. _"No"_ his hissed to himself, eventually giving in to the temptation. Taking one last look over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't in here he allowed himself to glance at the page. Unfortunately it was only part of the entry she had written. He refused to touch the thing in case Lucy went mad and starting using powder and a black light for forensic evidence to find out who tampered with it.

 _...with Levy to the mall. Shopping was definitely a success until Natsu almost spoiled it. If it weren't for Cana he might've seen the damn thing and ruined the whole surprise. I'm still not sure if I want to go through with it, but I better make up my mind soon. I can't keep going back and forth. It's not fair to him._

Natsu raised both his eyebrows in curiosity and slight confusion. That passage could be interpreted multiple ways, but the only time he could think of being with Cana at the mall seeing Lucy and Levy was when the blond was toting a Victoria's Secret bag. No doubt there was something in there designated for him and that though in of itself made him want to look for it, but he knew that Lucy would actually kill him if he did. He would just have to wait for Christmas.

* * *

"And where have _you_ been?" Mira tapped her foot with a playfully knowing smirk at Erza.

The red head just sighed in slight frustration at the impeding spanish inquisition soon to follow her arrival. Waving a dismissive hand, Erza scurried upstairs to go wash herself and refresh her makeup. They'd be leaving for the Christmas party in less than three hours. All the girls were scurrying about trying to get ready. Even Lucy had come over earlier that day in order to have Mira fix her hair and do her make up. They were all helping each other in the bodice's of the custom dresses since some of them seemed to be a bit tricky to maneuver into. Although the way some of them fit like a glove was a testament to the detail the seamstress or tailor put into making those dresses for them.

"Suck it in" Mira heard Lucy grunt as she put a foot on Yukino's lower back, trying to use it as a leverage point for her to pull the corset of the dress tighter.

The silver haired girl wheezed as she hugged herself in slight discomfort before Lucy finished typing up the dress. Afterwards she breathed a sigh of relief at the dress holding up her figure for her instead.

"Juvia next!" the bluenette raised her hand with an excited voice.

Lucy just wiped the sweat from her brow, still sporting a t-shirt and sweatpants because she hadn't gotten into her own dress yet due to helping everyone else.

"Go get ready" Mira came into the living room with a smile, "You have your own dress to finagle into. I'll take care of the rest of it down here."

Lucy nodded with some gratitude before shuffling upstairs to go grab her own dress out of Levy's room that was still hanging in the girl's wardrobe in a plastic fabric case to protect it. She didn't store it in hers and Natsu's room because she actually wanted to surprise him with it. Hopefully tonight would go the way she wanted it to.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **Thank you guys so much for continuing to read this! Please leave me a review to let me know what you think! ^^**


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Wow Luce" Natsu's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the blond coming down the stairs. He was definitely not expecting to see her so dressed up.

All the girls had on formal looking evening gowns like they were going to the Grammy's. All the men were forced to wear a suit and tie. Gajeel had even opted to go all out with a tux. Laxus had tied every single one of boys' ties, grumbling to himself the whole time he did it. Standing in the girls' living room, they were all happy they had waited so long once they got an eye-full of the ladies. Lucy had descended the stairs first in a dazzling white gown that had the upper half as lace that fanned out against her breasts in a deep, serrated V neck line. The waist was a thick, gold colored metallic belt. The lower half of the dress was lose flowing and had a side slit to expose one of her legs as she walked. After a low wolf whistle Natsu kept his stare glued on her as she latched herself onto his arm with a smile. Hot on Lucy's heels was Levy, who was sporting a knee length, tight fitting orange gown. The bodice was tight and covered in Swarovski crystals shaped like flowers. Over the top of the tight shape was a plain orange cloth that was woven over her breasts and zigzagged again across her hips before tying off to one side, leaving a tail of fabric that trailed to her ankles.

"This is definitely not my style" Levy cringed as she struggled to walk up to Gajeel in her four inch heels.

Gajeel let out a chuckle as he teased her, "Hey look shrimp, you're almost as tall as my elbows now."

With that comment Levy playfully slapped him before ending up almost falling over and grabbing onto him for balance. Kagura scurried down the stairs a moment later in a navy blue full length gown that had a deep sweetheart neckline, the two inch thick straps were on top of her shoulders and then a second set that were connected on the sides of her upper arms. The fabric was plain and lose and flowing but still elegant with a slit off to one side and slightly front set so that one of her legs was exposed when walking. Rogue pulled on the collar of his dress shirt as he watched her walk up with slight uneasiness. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her as a compliment.

"You uh… that's… nice dress" he struggled to stammer out as Kagura gave him a knowing smirk before playfully elbowing him.

Sting almost wanted to run up the stairs since Yukino hadn't come down yet, but halfway up the stairs he saw her coming down and his breath caught in his throat. There she was a in a tight, short, baby blue dress that was essentially strapless as the blue crystals hung loosely against the sides of her arms off her shoulders. The dress also had a giant bow on the back of it that was built onto it.

"Sting!" she whined, "Why can't you just wait?" she puffed out her face in a pout as she slowly tiptoed down the stairs in her stiletto heels.

"Now that I see it, I wish I had run upstairs sooner" Sting laughed with a slight blush on his cheeks as he held out his hand to help Yukino the rest of the way down the stairs.

Erza was the next to descend into the living room and she wore a plain green silk dress that was knee length as well. It left most of her shoulders exposed with short sleeves. The empire waist line complimented her figure before fanning out into a pleated skirt bottom that made the dress seem to poof off of her in a flattering and playful manner. She made her way over to stand by the door as she eyed everyone else in the room. Mira was down the stairs next, dragging a reluctant Juvia with her.

"Juvia isn't sure this is a good idea" you could hear her say from around the corner before she and Mira appeared in the living room, holding onto a protesting Juvia.

Juvia was wearing a deep cobalt blue dress that was mid thigh with the length on the back of the dress coming down to below her knees. The dress left the tops of her shoulders exposed with the sleeves hugging the sides of her arms. Her face was blood red as she walked into the room to see everyone staring at her. There was especially one person who's face she wanted to look at the most, but was afraid of their reaction. Mira let a devious smile creep up her face as she saw Gray walk over and put a hand on Juvia's shoulder.

"What's wrong? You look good" he said nonchalantly, without making full eye contact with her.

Juvia jumped a little at the sudden contact before blushing at the sound of Gray's voice paying her a compliment. She still hadn't forgotten about their conversation late last night. When she woke she could still see the wrinkle in her sheets from where Gray had reclined next to her until she fell asleep. The bluenette was grateful for his comment and nodded before facing forward, looking at all the other happy people around the room.

Laxus played with the collar of his tuxedo uneasily as he finally got a god look at Mira. Her burgundy dress and lose flowing hair were incredible. the Dress was a dangerously low and wide V-neck with the dress twisting into a knot below her cleavage. The long sleeves left enough of her skin covered to cause intrigue, but highlighted and exposed the most dangerous parts of her chest. Laxus felt his cheeks tint a little as he realized she was looking back at him with a knowing smirk on her face. The two of them hadn't necessarily spoken about the night in the kitchen when they were putting up Christmas decorations, but they both knew that neither truly ignored that it had happened.

"You all make me sick" Cana snorted as she walked out of the kitchen, nursing the last of a bourbon bottle down her throat before setting it down on one of the living room end tables.

The sassy and buzzed brunette was wearing a loose fitting mid thigh gown with one shoulder strap that had bedazzled circles on it. The bright teal dress flowed around her figure and her makeup she wore was more elaborate and sharp than usual.

"Not all of our boyfriends are liquid" Mira wagged her tongue at Cana while waving the bottle in her face with a slight scowl.

"I'm pre-gaming" Cana grumbled before wiping her mouth off on her arm and heading for the door.

The entire group had limos waiting out front of the two houses for them. They managed to divide themselves into two groups and the party of 14 was on their way to the Christmas gathering. When they arrived it was at the lobby of some illustrious hotel. Natsu could tell from the crystal chandeliers and the pompous guest list that this was definitely a record label party. He sighed in slight agitation at the thought of running into other bands, singers, or people who were signed with the record label. One thing he wasn't expecting was to see was Lucy head over to the bar with Cana right when they got there.

"Woah there" Natsu tried to chuckle as he put a hand on her shoulder, "Is something wrong?" he asked curiously.

Normally Lucy wasn't an avid drinker like Cana, and she usually savored her drinks unless she was on a bender and wanted to get wasted on purpose. When she usually decided to get wasted on a whim there was some underlying reason.

"Nothing" Lucy faked smiled as she tried to swallow the liquid courage.

Her anxiety was through the roof and she had never been around so many wealthy and popular people in her life since she left home. It reminded her painfully of her father's parties with other business tycoons and moguls. She wouldn't be surprised if someone from the guest list ended up recognizing her, putting her in a very bad position. She also needed the liquid courage in order to carry through her Christmas plan. Her only hope was that the alcohol lasted long enough once they left the venue.

"Well, if you're sure" Natsu sighed as he released his grip on her arm, "I'm going to find Erik and the others. Let me know if you need something."

Lucy nodded and gave a quick smile before turning back to the bar with Cana.

"Trouble in paradise?" Cana asked with a shit eating grin.

Lucy laughed before responding, "Not yet, just debating on rocking the boat is all."

"Oh girl" Cana cooed before throwing her head back to let out a hearty laugh, "I would rock a boat that had abs like him too!"

Lucy couldn't help the snort that escaped her lips at Cana's horribly accurate analysis of what she was saying. However she was hoping to keep her head low enough to where she wouldn't have to deal with anyone or anything and when party was over she and Natsu could carry on with their holiday.

Across the room, Gray found himself standing near a side table with two seats, one on each side. He quickly planted himself in a chair and proceeded to look around the lobby at all the other people who were exchanging gifts, business cards, and handshakes. He hated events like this, but he supposed that watching them from the sidelines was much safer.

"May… may Juvia join you?" she asked nervously because she had followed Gray since they arrived and wasn't sure if he was annoyed.

"Hm?" Gray raised a brow at her, almost seeming as if he wasn't even mentally all there, "Yea sure" he shrugged before swirling his glass in his hands, watching the ice cubes clank in his whiskey.

Juvia gave him a sheepish smile before taking a seat in the chair across from him and looking around at the other people. The truth was that her anxiety was screaming at her at how many unknown people there were. Gray was her only grounding force since she was familiar with him, even if he chose to get annoyed at her again for being around him. However Juvia felt slightly relieved when she looked over and saw that Gray didn't seem to mind her presence at all. He demeanor was still the same and he seemed more relaxed and distracted at everything going on around them rather than angry or agitated.

"Does… does Juvia bother you?" She finally managed to eek out her question with a slight flinch.

Gray quirked a brow at her before shrugging again, "You bothered me at first because I didn't know you. Now it just doesn't bother me. I'm used to it."

"Oh…" Juvia sighed at his gruff and somewhat indirect answer.

It wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but she knew that it was probably better than what he could've said. Once Gray saw the crestfallen expression on his face he had to temporarily use his brain to analyze what he had just said. After a few moments he inwardly wanted to slap himself. While it was true what he had said, the wording he used made it sound like Juvia was a bother, but he'd become adapted to it, which wasn't true at all.

"I also" Gray coughed to add to his explanation, "I also don't mind anymore because you got better about my personal space, and you don't mind me being quiet."

"Of course" Juvia smiled at his last remark, "The quiet is easier for Juvia too sometimes."

Gray nodded before taking another swig from his glass and directing his attention back out towards the party.

* * *

Natsu was wondering around until he spotted Erik's super tanned skin and burgundy hair. After tapping on his shoulder, the man gave Natsu a smile before turning back to his conversation partner.

"Well we had no idea about that, but I can't release that information to you" Erik chuckled nervously.

Natsu took a look at the dirty blond man with one of the most pompous faces Natsu had ever seen. The man's arrogance that radiated off of him made Natsu want to punch him where he stood.

"Well, as you know, if Jude doesn't exactly want his daughter exposed in this kind of light. If you could just give me her contact information then I'll be able to take care of it without anyone else getting involved. I was told she reports to you." The man gave a smile that betrayed his malevolent undertone that was most definitely a threat.

"I know Jellal invited you Loke due to your family's ties to the filming industry, but don't bother threatening me." Erik grumbled, already annoyed with the conversation.

"I bet she's here right now" Loke smirked, "If I looked around hard enough…" he was scanning around the lobby.

"Whether or not Lucy is here, I'm going to have to ask you to leave her alone. If I'd known about what you just told me I'd have had her stay home. If you walk up to her, we're going to have a problem." Erik deadpanned, looking right at Loke with a face that was more than just business.

"Why are you looking for Lucy?" Natsu cut in impulsively with a surge of territorial pride and protective instinct overwhelming him.

"What's it to you?… Nathan? Napalm? Na-"

"Natsu" Natsu cut him off, crossing his arms to try and contain his boiling insides.

"Right" Loke sported a shit eating grin, "Lucy Heartfilia doesn't belong here. She's above all of this, and it's about time she fulfilled her responsibilities to her family."

"Lucy doesn't owe her family anything" Natsu scowled, remembering his and Lucy's conversations about how she had left her father behind.

"You can argue that way if you want, but her father still promised me a bride" Loke gave Natsu one last jab to think over in his mind before turning on his heel and walking away from the two of them.

"What the actual fuck?" Natsu growled, completely disgruntled by both anger and confusion.

Bride? Had Loke actually insinuated that Lucy was supposed to marry _him_? What the hell was going on? Why didn't Lucy mention that she had a fiancé, or betrothed business merger marriage thing? Natsu ran a frustrated hand through his hair before looking around to see if he could find Lucy. When he didn't initially spot her he decided to check the bar where he'd left her before. Upon seeing Lucy, Natsu also unfortunately saw what she was looking at with a mixture of anger and terror, Loke. Resisting the urge to punch the man who was literally just told by Erik to leave Lucy alone, Natsu stood there with his fists clenched. In a matter of seconds though, Lucy was carefully getting out of her barstool and trying to hobble away, no doubt the alcohol making walking in heels infinitely harder. Upon seeing Natsu looking right at her, Lucy fled towards him when she felt someone grab her arm. Lucy went to turn around and meet Loke's face to glower at him, but in a flash she saw pink locks that in one swift movement had loke's hand off her arm, and the rest of the arrogant bastard was lying flat on the floor.

"Don't _touch_ her" Natsu seethed, looking down at Loke before putting his suit jacket over Lucy protectively and walking her away. The two of them asked staff for a secluded space and were led to one of the smaller VIP business rooms that looked like it was meant to hold an important business briefing, not a crying blond and an angry pinkette.

"What the fuck" Natsu hissed for a second time that evening, "Why did you never mention _him_?"

Lucy took a second to get a grip on her head spinning from booze and flashbacks before realizing that Natsu was talking to her, "What?… What was I even supposed to say? There was a guy who my dad was going to force me to marry but I made him call it off because the guys a cheating liar? Natsu I didn't do anything with that guy other than kiss him. He broke my stupidly naive heart, but that's it. There's not much to tell."

"Why does he still think he some kind of claim to you?" Natsu wanted to punch a wall and hug Lucy, but did neither in case he got the two confused.

Lucy just breathed deeply before explaining, "I signed a document, when I was 17, and so did my father. It basically said that I was supposed to marry Loke in order to complete the business merger. I thought that since they never merged, the document was null and didn't matter anymore. However now that my father's talking to their company again, or so it seems, somehow Loke's deluded himself into thinking that contract is still valid."

"Is it?" Natsu asked with genuine concern and curiosity.

"I don't think so" Lucy sighed, "I'm actually not sure. I know that basically it means in order for my father to merge with and absorb their business into his I needed to marry Loke. Since the merge never happened I assumed the marriage never needed to either, and vice versa."

"This whole situation is fucked up" Natsu gripped his head before slapping his thighs and putting his hands in his pockets while walking around the room in no particular pattern.

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose at the oncoming headache, "I know" she sighed, "But I'm more afraid of my father than of Loke. If my father finds out where I am then there's no telling the amount of problems this will cause."

"Well your father's not here, is he?" Natsu scowled at her slightly, hoping that their whole Christmas party wouldn't be spent hiding from half the guest list in board room.

Lucy shook her head, "He doesn't go to many events like this. He wasn't usually one for entertainment."

"I see" Natsu grunted before placing a hand comforting on top of her head, "It'll be ok Luce" He tried to reassure her, "We can't spend our whole night in here."

"I know" Lucy sobbed into her hands, trying to recompose herself.

* * *

"Fancy seeing you here" Jellal smirked as he walked up to Erza.

The crimson haired woman had simply stood out in the foyer of the party, unsure of where to go. Jellal hadn't been answering her texts and she had no way of knowing where he was in the whole venue. It was a rather large rented space.

"Fancy even being able to find you" Erza sighed in slight relief, "This venue is huge."

"It's not as big as you think" Jellal laughed a little, "The majority of the building is the hotel rooms above. The first 3 floors are all different, and this venue's just on one of them."

"Well, I don't think I'll be going up to the hotel rooms" Erza remarked with a smirk.

"Unless you drink too much wine again" Jellal quipped with his lips quirked upward in a slightly mocking way.

Erza playfully slapped him before saying, "President Fernandez, If I didn't know any better I'd assume you wanted me to get that drunk again."

Jellal shrugged, still smirking, "I don't know about _that_ drunk, but you do seem to be in a much better mood with a glass in your hand."

"Fair enough" Erza nervously chuckled.

The two of them made small talk before Jellal held out his arm in an invitation for Erza to walk around with him. They spent several minutes talking to some of the higher ups in the record label, including Makarov who was there as well. Jellal had expected Erza to be worn out, but it seemed she was better at charisma than he was. She seemed to feed off of other people's moods and energy as they went around to each group of people. Some of the party guests had even mistaken them for a married couple. It was undeniable to any onlookers that they did indeed look very good together.

* * *

"Why do they bring us to these fancy piece of shit things?" Laxus grumbled under his breath.

The blond made his way over to Gajeel who was up against the wall close to the bar with a drink. Laxus had a gin and tonic in his hand while clenching the other. The brutish guy wasn't much for socializing, but Erik had insisted that they all be here since their album was going to launch soon and they needed "the publicity" as he put it.

"I swear they just bring us to parade us around like caged animals" Laxus continued his lamenting as he stood beside Gajeel.

The dark haired man just laughed before nudging Laxus, "Could be worse, we could be treated like animals."

"Who says we aren't?" Laxus shot back.

"Says your $10,000 suit and rolex watch you asshat" Gajeel said gruffly before downing the last of his drink.

"Fair enough" Laxus shrugged, "I just hate formal stuff like this. Makes me itch."

Gajeel chuckled a bit before turning to Laxus, "Is it the people making you itchy, or just one in particular?"

"Can it" Laxus cut him off, "I don't think anyone else is in a position to talk. You've all been getting whipped, whether or not you realize it."

"I can think of worse things than trying to accommodate someone you care about" Gajeel hummed with some sincerity in his voice.

Laxus crossed his arms, still in a sour mood, before making his way over to the bar close by to ask for another gin and tonic. The only thing that was going to make the rest of this night bearable would be alcohol.

* * *

"Don't you think you should slow down?" Rogue asked nervously as he watched Kagura down her fourth bourbon spiked eggnog.

The dark haired woman shot him a scowl before asking, "Why? It's Christmas."

"Yea, Christmas not Drunk-mas" Rogue attempted to tease her with a chuckle.

Kagura punched his side before playfully growling, "I'll do what I want. I'm a grown woman."

"I see that" Rogue said with a mixture of amusement and something more as he squinted his eyes at her.

"You guys still doing ok over here?" Sting asked slightly out of breath with an equally breathless, red-faced Yukino by his side.

If Rogue hadn't been watching them dance out on the dance floor the past hour, then it would look like they'd just made their way from a cramped storage closet love making session. Yukino had a disgustingly happy smiled plastered on her face. It made Rogue both happy and also jealous. He inwardly wished that he could put the same expression onto Kagura's face if it weren't for the fact that the woman was so damn hard to please. She seemed happiest when he did nothing at all. Rogue's confusion didn't stop there. Kagura seemed to have an inadvertent magnetism to him, which he was grateful for since Sting was starting to float away as he got close to Yukino, or at least it felt that way. If it weren't for Kagura, Rogue probably would've felt utterly alone. The girl was the same as him though, a wall flower. She didn't find it in herself to mingle with other people or dance, or do anything remotely outgoing. Rogue had to laugh because those same things sounded horrible to him too, but he would do them for her if that's what it took to make her happy.

* * *

"You could at least pretend you're happy to be here" Mira gave Laxus a knowing grin as she sauntered up to the grouchy man.

The stench of his alcohol consumption his her like a brick wall and with a slight choke she asked, "If you had as much Christmas spirit as you do alcohol, being happy wouldn't be so hard."

"Christmas spirit my ass. More like Christmas spirits." he joked while holding up a bottle bourbon.

"Not those kind of spirits" Mira sighed with slight frustration before prying the rest of the bottle from his fingers, "I think you need to go home."

"No" He scowled at her, "I'll leave when the party's over."

"Laxus" Mira scowled dangerously at the overgrown man child, "We both know drunk or sober you'd rather be home than here. Just come get a cab with me so we can get out of here."

"Way ahead of you" Mira heard someone say from over her shoulder.

When she turned around she saw a very obviously uncomfortable Lucy who was being hyper vigilant and paranoid with Natsu who was pressing buttons on his phone, "Our Uber will be here in less than ten minutes. Think you two can hold out till then?"

Mira smiled and nodded while Laxus just huffed and refused to look at any of them. He knew that he was getting dragged back to the house whether or not he wanted to, but he knew Mira was right. Laxus definitely wanted to be anywhere but that stuffy party. This was something that people like Cana, Sting, and Erik enjoyed more than he did. The clock was barely past 10 pm when they were on their way out. They hadn't even been at the party for two full hours before ditching. After Natsu signaled the car was here, they all scurried down the stairs quickly. Natsu draped an arm around Lucy while trying to see if he could get one last glare in, but Loke was nowhere to be found. The group of four ducked inside the SUV before it drove off towards their homes. After walking through the front door, both Laxus and Natsu let out heavy groans. The relief of being back home was great, but between Laxus being drunk and Natsu being stressed after dealing with chunks of Lucy's past, both men were extremely tired.

"Think you can make it upstairs?" Natsu asked Laxus with a shit eating grin.

Laxus paid Natsu no mind as he trudged towards the steps and grabbed onto the handrail and bannister as he slowly trudged up the steps. Mira waited at the bottom, avoiding the urge to try and help him, as she watched until he'd climbed the last step before skipping up behind him. She was sure to leave a spare change of sweat pants and a t-shirt in his room in case she ever needed them, and it looked like tonight would be one of those nights.

"Hey Luce you ok?" Natsu finally asked from over his shoulder.

The whole party was ruined for the two of them after Loke decided to show his face and try to talk to Lucy. Natsu knew that while they couldn't spend the whole night in that boardroom there was no point in staying at the party after that. He'd tried to give Lucy a half hour to adjust to the party again, but her paranoid glances, rigid posture, and tight expression on her lips were enough to tell Natsu that she wasn't enjoying herself anymore.

After letting out a huge breathe she was holding in Lucy nodded, "I think so."

"Then let's head up" Natsu chirped as he kicked off his dress shoes to hold them in his hand before scuttling up the stairs.

Lucy bit her lip as she skipped up the steps behind him. After closing their bedroom door, Lucy went over and sat on the bed as she watched Natsu take of his tie and leather belt from his dress pants. After realizing Lucy was watching him, Natsu blushed slightly before giving her a predatory smirk.

"Like what you see?" he asked her.

Without words, Lucy took his teasing as an invitation to walk over and kiss him. The pinkette chuckled against her mouth playfully as he pecked her lips, cheeks, forehead, and then latched his mouth onto her neck as he sensuously ran circles on her skin with his tongue. Lucy felt her knees wobble slightly before Natsu tightened his grip around her waist to keep her standing. Before she realized it he had scooped her up into his arms bridal style and was walking her over to the bed. She felt her whole world spin off the hinges at the thought of what she was about to do.

"Wait" she said as she broke apart from Natsu who groaned.

She could read the disappointment in his eyes as well as the understanding, even though he had the completely wrong idea.

"I... I wanted to go put something on first" Lucy pointed towards the closet with her face a vivid red.

"No" Natsu growled as he leaned down and recaptured her lips, "You can wear it later."

"But Natsu" she whined, "It's part of your Christmas gift."

"Wear it tomorrow" He growled out again as he climbed over her and pinned her with his weight to the bed below him.

He had waited long enough for Lucy to finally be ready, and he'd be damned if he waited another five minutes for her to go put something on that he would immediately take off anyway. Lucy could sense the urgency in his voice as well as his kiss as she unbuttoned the rest of his dress shirt before tossing it off to the floor, revealing a white tank top underneath. Natsu wasn't sure if Lucy was decided on whether or not she wanted to go through with what he had in mind, but he was sure to keep himself as under control as possible in case she changed her mind. The last time she'd backed down, he still got something out of it, but that wasn't enough for him now. He didn't want to dominate Lucy like a conquest, but he wanted to apart of her, _with_ her, _in_ her.

Lucy's fingers ran wildly through Natsu's hair as he bruised her lips, trying to fumble with the straps of her dress to slide them off her shoulders, freeing her breasts underneath. Due to the deep V-neck of the dress, Lucy had opted for no bra underneath. Natsu wasn't complaining about her wardrobe choice as he immediately leaned down and kissed his way down the side of one of her breasts before taking the tip in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the cold metallic object running through it. Lucy threw her head back and let out a ragged breath as she arched her back into his mouth and pulled his head closer to her chest with the hands she had entangled in his hair. Natsu smirked against her skin, feeling the heat beginning to radiate off her body from her arousal. Lucy eventually arched more than her back as she bucked her hips against his, feeling his hardening arousal underneath his dress pants. Eventually Lucy was able to sit up and push Natsu back slightly, causing him to unlatch his mouth from her breasts as she pulled his tank top off over his head. After tossing the garment to the side she immediately went for his dress pants and much more quickly than before unlatched the button and unzipped the pants before tugging at them.

"Slow down" Natsu chuckled with hot breath against her forehead before laying her back against the bed and planting a trail of gentle kisses from her forehead to her jaw before locking his lips with hers.

Lucy released control as she felt Natsu lower her onto the mattress with a hand behind her back, fumbling with the last restraints of her dress. After shimmying her out of the gown, Natsu licked his lips before climbing back onto the bed beside the blond. Wearing nothing but her underwear Lucy felt much more exposed than she had before. Natsu grabbed Lucy's waist and raised her onto his lap so she was straddling him as he pressed their bare chests together. She could feel his erection even more with less fabric between them. His pants had managed to sink halfway down his thighs without the support of the belt or buttons. Eventually he kicked them to the floor along with his boxers. Lucy instantly blushed at seeing his length again. Already having gotten more than an eyeful of it before, the novelty hadn't worn off yet. Natsu gave her a toothy grin at the both mesmerized and lustful look on her face. Embarrassed, Lucy covered her face with her hands before Natsu curled up with her on the bed. The cold was starting to nip at their skin, so he pulled them both under the covers before pulling her against him again. In an attempt to alleviate her anxiety Natsu left slow and tender kisses from her chest down to her chest while running a reassuring hand up and down her back. He was so close, and he knew at any moment she could deny him. The thought of having to stop again made him feel like he was walking on a tightrope with no room to mess up. Eventually he flipped Lucy under him while readjusting the comforter to still cover them both. Kissing his way from her face down her chest, playfully tugging on one of her nipple piercings, then down her stomach his mouth came to the hem of her panties. He took a deep breath and Lucy could feel his hot skin against her naval before her underwear shifted down her thighs and slid off her feet.

"Natsu" Lucy whimpered as she synced her eyes shut in anticipation and bashfulness.

Natsu didn't respond to her whisper but instead put his mouth to her core where most of her body heat was coming from. He used his tongue to run circles around her raised clitoris and swollen labia. Lucy had to catch a moan in her throat that was trying to make it's way out. She couldn't help but remember that just down the hall Mira and Laxus were home and in their own room and could probably hear them if they were too loud. However Lucy could feel Natsu chuckle against her sensitive skin at her struggle keep her volume down. No doubt the pinkette wouldn't have a problem with her moaning and groaning as he was causing most of it.

"Natsu" Lucy breathed again, but this time it was full of lust and ecstasy.

Natsu ignored the blond who was trying to get his attention. He could tell from her hips rocking and her legs occasionally twitching that she was close. He took his thumb and pressed it to where his tongue was originally swirling and in order to move his mouth down to her sensitive opening and plunge inside. It was much more warm and moist, but Natsu could feel her muscles contracting and knew he was right about assuming she was close. After swirling his thumb around a few more times with his tongue exploring her inner caverns she seized intensely against Natsu's mouth. The moan she let out was both alarming and arousing to Natsu. Knowing he was responsible for the growl mixed with a desperate cry that came from her mouth was inflating his ego.

With a slight grunt, Natsu crawled up and poked his head up from underneath the comforter. Lucy's face was slightly glowing with a thin layer of sweat as well as tomato red from the blood that had rushed to her head. The pinkette laid beside her as he ran a hand through her golden locks, admiring the afterglow.

"I thought..." Lucy tried to say while catching her breath, "That you wanted to..." she trailed off as she looked away from his face.

Natsu let his lip curl in slightly amusement as he said, "I do, but not unless you want to."

Lucy felt the heat rise to her face more than it already had as she commanded herself to look into his eyes. Curious onyx orbs were staring back at her, search her features for an answer to an unasked question. Eventually Lucy scooted closer to him as she pressed her lips against his, trying to slide her tongue inside of his mouth. Natsu took that as the answer he needed before he rolled over on to of Lucy, still sporting the same erection he'd acquired over half an hour ago.

Natsu spent a few moments warming Lucy back up from where she had crashed after falling off cloud nine a few minutes ago. Once he noticed that he had worked her back into a frenzy again with mewling and squirming at his touch, he touched his forehead against hers and looked into her face for any signs of hesitation. Much to his surprise, all he saw in her eyes was lust and wanting. She wanted this as much as he did, and once he saw it reflected in her brown eyes, he let go of that last shred of self control he'd been holding onto. After lining himself up with Lucy's entrance, he buried his face into her neck

and plunged deep inside of her. He tried to muffle her cry with his mouth on hers in a comforting kiss, remembering her words from before that she was a virgin. He could feel it too, her walls were extraordinarily tight around him. After a few moments of waiting, Natsu looked back at Lucy's face to see her eyes watering as she was biting her lip, trying not to cry.

"You ok?" Natsu asked with slight concern.

Lucy nodded before groaning, "Just keep going... please."

Natsu raised his brows at her slightly before kissing her cheek and continuing where he left off. He felt Lucy flinch with each movement at first, but eventually her muscles relaxed and the same sounds as before resumed. He watched her face twist and eyes roll back with pleasure at what he was doing. Eventually Natsu felt his own reality slipping as he got closer and closer to his own climax. After a few last, hard thrusts, Natsu felt the world spin as he clenched his teeth and let out a low growl in Lucy's ear as he felt himself unload inside of her. Gripping the sheets, Lucy felt a warmth flood inside of her while Natsu's hot breath trailed along the side of her face and her ear. Wrapping her legs around his waist, Lucy clenched herself against Natsu until she felt his muscles release their tension and the pinkette slightly drop his weight onto her.

Both of them were a panting hot mess as Lucy started giggling slightly at how flustered Natsu looked. The pinkette was breathing heavily but smirked at Lucy before chuckling himself, pulling the blond closer to him as he rolled off of her and laid on his side.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **IT ONLY TOOK 28 CHAPTERS FOR THEM TO HAVE SEX! lol. Sorry.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer:** I  DO NOT own Fairy Tail.

 **I am so sorry for the long absence of this chapter. Honestly my life has ceased to be insane right now. I ended up spending a lot of time the past couple weeks with friends who had come home for the summer from their overseas schools and I spent time with them before they all left to go back to those schools. I'm also struggling a good bit with my depression. It's not horrible so don't worry. I just struggle to be productive during the day because I feel a little useless and tired all the time. Anyways, enjoy! I tried to make this chapter about 7.5k words so that you guys would have a nice chunk to read since I took so long in updating.**

* * *

Leading back to the party, it seemed that Lucy and Natsu's absence was noticed as Erik looked around for the two of them. No doubt Loki had found them and had inserted himself where he wasn't welcome. Cursing under his breath, the burgundy haired band manager wasn't sure how he was going to cover for them. Apparently Natsu was supposed to speak with Jellal and announce their upcoming band tour.

"Don't worry about it" Jellal's voice reassured a slightly panicked Erik, "Natsu's worked hard these past couple months and because of him, we're ahead of schedule. We can put off the announcement until New Years. I'm not worried about it. Laxus seems to be missing too, so with almost half the band gone making the announcement now wouldn't feel right."

Erik nodded and felt the anvil on his shoulders slowly lift away. He was sure if he was working for a different producer other than Jellal that he would've gotten chewed out and possibly fired for losing track of band members who were supposed to make an important appearance. However, the sensible bluenette didn't harbor any kind of stress or strain over the issue and was overall more relaxed than Erik remembered seeing him around the holidays.

"You seem like you aren't worried about it at all" Erik commented with a quirked brow.

Jellal shrugged with a slight grin, "I guess I'm just in a good mood."

"Uh huh..." Erik said chewing his lip with a calculating gaze full of suspicion at Jellal.

"Anyways" Jellal sighed, "The party's winding down now anyway. It's midnight and most of the VIPs have left."

"Except that one" Erik said with a begrudging tone as he pointed his finger towards Loki who seemed to still be prowling around for a certain someone.

Jellal wiped a frustrated hand over his face with slight annoyance at the gold haired nuisance as he groaned, "Let me handle that. His family helped my record label out in the past, but Loki himself is starting to become even more of a problem than when I first hired Lucy."

"You mean you _knew_ ?" Erik almost spat out the white russian he was sipping on.

"Of course" Jellal scowled at him, "It's not that hard to use Google. Not to mention the mandatory background checks that we conduct for _all_ employees. Apparently Loki can use Google too, and that's how he found her."

Jellal hinted with emphasis at the background checks as Erik smiled sheepishly. While he had a great ear for music, he didn't have a great track record otherwise. His arrest record wasn't exactly squeaky clean. Jellal wouldn't have hired him if it weren't for his friend Sawyer sticking his neck out on the line for him. However, despite the aggravated assault, public indecency, and public intoxication charges he'd acquired multiple times, Erik was one of the best employees Jellal had.

"Mind telling me why you're in such a good mood though?" Erik finally inquired.

Jellal smirked a bit and twitched his lip as he explained, "I just suddenly feel more in the holiday spirit."

"That's definitely different from your usual outlook this time of year. Buy hey, it's a good weird."

Jellal snorted and rolled his eyes before responding, "Just wait until someone changes you."

"Ooooo someone huh? A girl?"

"Yea" Jellal seemed to look off past the hotel walls as a smile slowly crawled onto his face.

"What next? You gunna go take toys to dying children in hospitals?"

"I don't know man" Jellal chuckled, "All I know is that I'm not who I was anymore. I'm rediscovering myself and it's simultaneously liberating and frightening."

"I don't know if I wanna be where you are" Erik laughed a little before taking another swig of his drink, "Kinana and I aren't like that."

"You know she won't wait forever right" Jellal shot him a knowing glance.

He knew the two of them went way back. Erik had been a patron of the Fairy Tail night club for a long time, and since the first day he had walked through the club's doors he was magnetically drawn to Kinana. She was his personal assistant and secretary now, and it's no wonder why Erik had picked her personally given their history.

"I don't know about that either" Erik sucked in some air through his teeth as he cringed slightly, "It just feels weird man. I've been 'single' for almost a decade now. Why fix what isn't broken?"

"And that's exactly why she'll leave" Jellal shook his head slightly in disapproval, "You don't even want to acknowledge the scruples in your relationship. Do you really think Kinana is happy just mindlessly sitting behind a desk as your personal pretty face and occasionally satisfying your _other_ needs? No woman would want to willingly do those things without some kind of commitment. You two aren't even considered mutually exclusive."

"It's not like you see me with other women anyway" Erik rolled his eyes.

"But she doesn't know you're not with other women. That's what I'm trying to tell you. She isn't with you all the time, so when she's not around and can't see what you're doing she can only assume, and sometimes letting people assume stuff, especially if the situation is vague, isn't always a good idea. If you're not with other women anyway then why do you care?"

"I don't know" Erik grumbled, "Relationships have always felt like nasal congestion, suffocating and messy."

Jellal genuinely laughed at Erik's comment before slapping him on the back, "Then I suggest finding a relationship that comes with mucinex."

"Thanks, very helpful advice" Erik raised his glass sarcastically as he watched Jellal walk away from him down the stairs to bid farewell to some of the other guests leaving.

* * *

"Gray-sama doesn't dance?" Juvia asked innocently as she noticed that the party was beginning to end, and Gray hadn't gotten up except to use the restroom or get more alcohol.

"I told you to drop that honorific already, and no, I don't dance" Gray slightly scowled at her as he crossed his arms defensively.

Juvia put a finger to her chin in thought before asking, "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to be asked to dance by a bunch of other people. If I say yes to one person, I feel like I have to say yes to everyone else. It's easier to just tell everyone no."

"How is that easier?" Juvia asked with genuine confusion, "You tell the people you want to dance with no, because of the people you don't want to dance with? Why not say yes to the people you like and no to the people you don't? To Juvia, that seems like an easier option. If you tell everyone no then you don't get to have fun."

Gray raised a brow at Juvia. The bluenette made an annoying point. He could feel her expectant eyes on him, and sadly he couldn't find it in him to move his muscles or open his mouth to give her any indication of possibly wanting to dance. It wasn't so much that Gray himself wanted to dance with Juvia, but seeing the slowly growing expression of disappointment on her face killed him a little inside. After a couple more minutes, Gray realized that the only people left at the party were Sting and Rogue who seemed to be chumming it up with Erik and a few other party guests. Everyone else seemed to have otherwise trickled out.

"Let's head home" Gray finally sighed as he stood, glancing towards Juvia and waiting for her to stand with him.

With a slightly sorrowful nod, she stood and followed Gray out of the hotel's revolving doors into the street. Gray was about to wave for a cab until he turned around and saw Juvia staring down at the pavement. He wiped a hand over his face. There was no way he was going to be able to fix this. It was Christmas eve and the woman was almost in tears over something as simple as a dance.

"Tomorrow" Gray said over his shoulder, "I'll dance with you tomorrow."

Juvia instantly perked up at Gray's comment it was like night and day as her hollow expression suddenly filled with joy at the prospect of finally getting to dance with the object of her unhealthy obsessions. Knowing that Gray wouldn't be happy about her giddily talking to him about his sudden change of heart, Juvia opted to just cling to his arm instead of a smile that almost broke her face in half the rest of the cab ride home.

* * *

Twas the morning of Christmas, and all through house, all the band members were snoring and none wanted to rouse. Well, except for Sting and Rogue. The two of them were much too excited for Christmas, and even more pleasantly surprised, they found presents under the tree that weren't there last night when they had gotten home from the party.

"Oh" Laxus rubbed his eyes at the top of the stairs, "I didn't expect them to actually do that overnight."

"What are you talking about?" Gajeel grunted as he yawned and looked at all the extra presents splayed under the tree.

Laxus turned to look at all of them as he watched Gray walk down the hall as well "Jellal wanted me to keep it a secret until this morning, but he got all of you some Christmas gifts as a thank you for the hard work we've put in."

"Cool!" Sting smiled as he sat on the banister at the top of the stairs and slid down to the bottom.

"Hey!" Laxus shouted at him, "Don't do that you'll break it! Natsu already knocked it loose jumping off it a while ago when Gajeel chased him!"

Rogue and Gray descended the stairs like normal human beings while Laxus face palmed as he watched a sleepy Mira making her way out of his room.

"Morning" she smiled at him with some drowsiness still lingering in her eyes, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Cause I was hoping you would've woken up first and slipped out" Laxus grumbled.

"Hey" Mira scowled with a dangerous tone, "That's not the kind of response I was expecting."

"Well having someone follow me home and crawl in my bed wasn't what I was expecting either."

"Well you were really drunk" she defended her actions.

"So you think crawling into some drunk man's bed is a good idea? Jesus Mira, what if I'd hurt you or something? If I was drunk enough who knows what could've happened."

"You're not just _some man_ , Laxus" Mira scowled at the brooding blond, "I know you wouldn't hurt me."

"You don't know me" Laxus glared back at her.

With some mild and indignant rage, Mira snorted in anger at him before she grabbed her flip flops out of his room and her bag and walked back over to the girls' house.

"Woah" Sting commented with raised eyebrows, "What was _she_ doing here?" he asked holding the same surprise on his face as he asked Laxus who was trudging down the stairs a few moments behind her.

"Leaving" Laxus grunted as he turned on his heel to walk into the kitchen and grab himself some coffee.

Christmas wasn't exactly his favorite holiday, and dealing with it hung over and full of drama wasn't making it any better. After downing an entire mug of coffee Laxus poured himself a second cup and made his way out to the living room. He sat in an armchair while he was watching Rogue and Sting shake boxes.

"Just fucking open them already" Laxus grumbled.

"We can't!" Sting whined, "Natsu isn't here!"

"To hell with him. I'm not knocking on that door." Gray chimed in with a sour expression remembering what he saw the last time he disturbed the two of them.

Gajeel quirked a brow at Gray's comment catching the gist of why the ice cube didn't want to go knock on the pinkette's door. After glancing around at everyone, Laxus growled that he would go get him and set his coffee mug on an end table before stomping up the stairs. With a loud knock he banged on Natsu's door.

"Wake the fuck up" Laxus grumbled against the wood.

Natsu immediately stirred from his sleep, naked. His eyes shot open at the sudden realization that someone was pounding on his door, and the blond he'd pounded last night was just as naked as him and in no state to answer the door.

"What?" Natsu answered from behind his door, crossing his fingers that Lucy wouldn't wake.

"Come downstairs you whore, it's Christmas."

Natsu rolled his eyes so hard he wouldn't have been surprised if Laxus was able to hear it, "I'll come down in a minute, ok?"

"One minute" Laxus emphasized, "Don't try and get a morning quickie in you freak."

"Shut up" Natsu glowered at the door, wishing he could bore holes through it, and Laxus.

After turning around to walk back towards the bed, Natsu noticed that the lump he left under the blankets had started to move around on the bed. A few seconds later after sliding back under the covers he saw Lucy's head pop up.

"Merry Christmas" she hummed as she curled against Natsu's warm skin.

He wouldn't deny that it was hard for him to not try and tangle himself in Lucy once again as he felt her chest against his own without any barriers in between them. Her skin was soft and warm, and her eyes held a groggy warmth to them that reeled natsu in like a siren song. However, Laxus's gruff words reverberated in Natsu's head as the pinkette groaned slightly before parting himself from Lucy.

"It was a _very_ merry Christmas" he purred against her face with a chuckle as he got her to giggle as well, "But unfortunately they're all waiting for us downstairs."

"Do we have to?" Lucy whined.

"Well, I do" Natsu slapped a hand over his face.

Traditions be damned. It as the first time they weren't all celebrating at Makarov's but everyone was still in auto pilot with regards to their Christmas morning customs of waiting for everyone to come to the living room to open gifts.

"I think I have to go next door anyway" Lucy sighed, "The girls are probably waiting for me to come open my gifts under their tree."

"Damn" Natsu huffed.

If he and Lucy lived alone then he would open the presents some other day. He wanted to keep her with him like that for as long as he could get away with. With a longing stare, Natsu watched Lucy crawl out from under the covers and quickly skip to the closet before closing herself inside. No doubt her speed in getting to the closet was because she felt his eyes on her, but when she came back out Natsu just smiled. She was wearing a long red sweater that came halfway down her thighs, partnered with plain black leggings. Her hair was tied in pig tails and she returned the warm expression on his face when she saw him.

"You have to wait till I get back before you open the gifts I got you!" Lucy chirped before quickly making her way out of his bedroom.

Lucy's face burned more red than her sweater as she tried to come down the stairs and nonchalantly make her way out of the boys' house. There was no doubt in her mind that all their eyes were on her. She wasn't sure if anyone had a clue what she and Natsu had done last night, but her inner self knew and that caused her to bashfully run out of the house before so much as muttering a 'Merry Christmas' to any of the boys. Sting let out a low wolf whistle as he watched Natsu descend the stairs shirtless with red sweat pants.

"Your girl rushed outta here pretty quick" Sting smirked.

Natsu smirked back at him as he retorted, "Yea cause she got one look at you and ran for the hills."

"Oh please" Sting feigned being insulted, "I'm gorgeous."

"Alright you two" Gajeel grumbled, "Hurry up and start opening your damn gifts."

Laxus rolled his eyes in a mixture of annoyance and relief that they were finally getting this over with. He began chucking out gifts at all the boys after checking the name tags on each box. Natsu got some new pants, a few new hats, some odds and ends. Rogue and Sting got new games to play besides Grand Theft Auto 5 on the console. Rogue also got the box set of first three seasons of Game of Thrones. Gajeel got some new studs and body jewelry to put in his copious piercings. Laxus got a '#1 Dad' coffee mug as a gag gift from Natsu and a pair of old man slippers from Gray.

"I'm sick of you wearing a towel all the damn time when you get out of the shower" Natsu glowered as he handed Gray a box with his name on it.

Gray then opened the package and pulled out a bathrobe and gave Natsu a smirked mixed with annoyance and gratitude as his eyebrow twitched.

* * *

After Lucy rushed through the front door of the girls' house next door they all crowded around her to show the gifts they had already opened, and before the blond could catch her breath Mira had put a mug of coffee in her hand. With a smile full of gratitude Lucy took a seat on one of the sofa's in the living room as she watched Yukino and Cana savagely rip apart their gifts.

"We're going two by two" Levy filled Lucy in, "That way were all able to watch and enjoy everyone opening gifts instead of having a chaotic free for all. There are just too many of us this year."

"But" Lucy smiled, "That's a good problem to have."

"I agree" Levy laughed as she drank some of her own coffee.

The bluenette's hair was still unruly as she sat in her pajamas and robe. the only people who had bothered to dress in real clothes were Lucy, Erza, and Mira. All the other girls were in pajamas or lounge-wear. The girls all all laughed at the gag gifts, gave thanks for the nice ones, and genuinely enjoyed each other's company.

"Ready to make it co-ed?" Cana laughed sarcastically.

The other girls let out a chorus of groans with only a few claps of excitement from Yukino and Mira. After shooing the pajama posse upstairs to change into regular clothes, Mira and Lucy went to work gathering ingredients to make food over at the boys' house.

"You'd be surprised how many ingredients they don't have over there" Mira sighed, "I couldn't even make Laxus soup!"

"I'm not surprised" Lucy rolled her eyes with a laugh, "I live there, remember?"

"Oh yeaaaaa" Mira purred, "How could I forget? Speaking of, how _was_ last night? Anything fun happen?"

"Hey" Lucy crossed her arms defensively while sticking her tongue out, "You're one to talk! I saw you slip in Laxus's room last night."

"Wuh-oh" Cana smirked as she leaned against the door frame to the kitchen cradling the bottle of brandy that Mira had tried to hide from her, "Looks like I missed out on some Christmas shenanigans last night."

"Give me that!" Mira scowled at Cana as she snatched the bottle away, "That's for spiking the eggnog later. Spike yourself with something else until then."

Cana shrugged before pushing herself off the door frame and walking back to her room to find another bottle of poison somewhere. After the brunette had disappeared Lucy turned back to Mira with a quirked brow. It seems mentioning Laxus had put the silver haired girl in a slightly foul mood. Rather than push the issue, Lucy just let it go. She was just thankful that Mira had dropped her and Natsu's activities last night as well. She knew there was no way Mira knew what had happened since Natsu had locked the door to their room.

* * *

"Hi-dee ho neighbors!" Juvia giddily cheered as she burst through the boys' front door.

They had all finished unwrapping their gifts and had figured the girls would move to their house when they were done next door. They had decided to watch Rogue and Sting play 'For Honor' that they had gotten. The girls all shuffled in and Natsu's eyes instantly snapped to the blond he painfully watched leave this morning.

"Guys!" Mira scowled at all of them, "Why are you still dressed like that?"

"Because it's our house?" Laxus scoffed from where he was on the sofa in his t-shirt and sweat pants.

The other boys were equally under-dressed as they saw Sting and Rogue wearing matching flannel pajamas, Gajeel and Natsu were topless with sweatpants, and then Gray was chilling in nothing but a pair of boxers. Juvia definitely wasn't going to complain about the view he was giving her, but she found it oddly uncomfortable that everyone else had the same view as well. She quickly walked over to try and convince him to put on some other clothes as well. Natsu immediately got up and followed Lucy into the kitchen where he saw her carry a bunch of grocery bags. Sting and Rogue didn't get up but they scooted over on the sofa from where Natsu was sitting to make room for Kagura and Yukino. Gajeel stood and stretched his arms over his head lazily as he put a pinkie in his ear to try and rub the damage from Mira's screeching over their appearance. Levy definitely liked the sight of his rock hard muscles from his torso and arms fully exposed. Most of the time she spent with Gajeel was just friendly snuggling and cuddling, but it was moments like this that got burned into her brain and sent her mind somewhere else during those moments of close physical proximity.

"Take a picture shortie" Gajeel leaned down and whispered in her ear provocatively, "It lasts longer."

"I'm sure it does last longer than you" Levy spitefully whispered back while begging herself not to blush and failing.

Gajeel was taken by surprise at her sudden comeback and outright laughed as he also noticed the blush on her face, "c'mere" he chuckled before getting her in a head lock and messing up her hair in a nuggie. Natsu watched Lucy and Mira quickly get to work as they started prepping ingredients for food. His mouth watered at both the smell of pancakes and the blond who was making them.

"You sure do spoil us" Natsu gave Mira and Lucy a toothy smirk, "It seems you guys always cook for us."

"Just special occasions" Mira smiled at the pinkette's flattery.

"So Laxus getting sick is a special occasion, huh?" Rogue sarcastically remarked as he entered the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Shoo you fly" Mira swat her spatula at him as he was trying to fill his glass.

Rogue laughed as he flinched and finished filling his water so he could run back out of the war zone that was their kitchen. After sitting back down on the sofa and putting his glass on the end table, Sting looked over and noticed the slight splotches of batter on Rogue's skin.

"You get in a fight in there?" Sting looked over Rogue's shoulder at the doorway to the kitchen.

"Something like that" Rogue smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

However the dark haired boy felt his skin crawl at the sudden sensation of someone's tongue on his neck. Kagura had sneakily leaned over and licked some of the splattered batter off his neck with her tongue. She could feel him shutter at the sudden warm and wet contact from her mouth and it made her smirk confidently.

"Tastes like she put cinnamon and nutmeg in it" Kagura said casually as she smirked and turned her attention back to the TV screen.

Rogue's face was one of slight shock and arousal as he tried to keep both the red off his face, and his erection from showing through his pajama pants. He had noticed over the past weeks that Kagura had become increasingly more flirty with him than their prior interactions. She used to feel like a duplicate of him; calm, cool, collected, and down to relax. However that was slowly changing with every passing innuendo, inappropriate joke, and occasionally dangerous, provocative physical contact. Rogue wasn't sure what to think, but for now he figured he would let it slide.

"Food's ready!" Mira shouted as she popped her head out of the doorway to the kitchen.

Everyone had worked up an appetite smelling the food and opening gifts all morning so they instantly perked up when they heard her words. Natsu jumped over the back of the couch to try and be the first one to the kitchen, even though he should go last because going first meant there'd be no food for anyone else.

"Ok, we're going to let Lucy and Mira get food first since they made all this stuff" Yukino tried to be diplomatic as she arranged the food order, "Then the girls go first because we brought the supplies and we also eat less than you mammoths."

The boys crossed their arms and scowled but no one dared to argue since her excuse was actually viable. If the boys went first there really wouldn't be any food left. After Lucy and Mira scooped a little amount of everything onto their plates and walked out the other girls went through and picked a few things here and there onto their dishes before leaving the boys to clean house. True to form, the boys went through and left absolutely nothing left in the kitchen as they carried towers of food out on their plates to the dining room table off to the side of the living room. There were two tables side by side that sat all of them with a little wiggle room. After eating and laughing with each other and sharing what each of them had gotten as gifts the girls suddenly looked around with an unspoken thought that Levy finally voiced.

"We still have gifts to give some of you" she said trying to swallow down her food that she had eaten.

"Oh really?" Gajeel quirked a brow with a curious smirk on his face.

A few of the girls nodded as they wiped their mouthes and pushed their chairs from the table to go back next door and get the gifts they had mentioned. After coming back to the boys' house they found everyone sitting in the living room chatting. Lucy had gone upstairs to get her gift that she had wrapped and hidden under a pile of Natsu's own laundry where he'd never find it. After handing it to him she stood in front of him with her hands behind her back twiddling her fingers nervously.

"For me?" Natsu asked with a toothy grin as he took the box from Lucy's hand and began tearing at the wrapping paper around it.

When he opened the lid his eyes went wide as his smile grew. Inside the box was the glass dragon that Lucy had found at the craft shop when she and Levy were at the mall. Natsu was genuinely in awe of the detail on the scaley red dragon that was perched on a large rock. The sculpture was easily the size of a basket ball. Carefully he lifted it out of the box and Lucy's breath hitched, wondering if he saw the inscription on the bottom.

"This is awesome, thanks Luce!" Natsu smiled before patting the couch cushion next to him as an invitation to sit down.

Lucy's face went red as she almost started stammering wondering how she was supposed to ask him to read the bottom of the sculpture. She didn't think when she had it done that she would have to give him this gift in front of everyone else who would also be able to read, or hear Natsu read, the inscription. She had to take a deep breath and swallow hard before she sat down next to the pinkette again.

"Here" he said as he pulled a box up from the floor that was down near the side of the sofa and handed it to Lucy.

The blond raised her brows. She actually didn't expect Natsu to even remember to buy her a gift, so she took the small box carefully and opened it as she lost her breath yet again, but this time from awe instead of nervousness. Inside was beautiful silver Pandora bracelet that had little pouches with beads and charms in them. There were a few pink and red beads in one pouch and then another two pouches that had larger charms in them. She pulled the first one out smiled as she read her name written in cursive. In bright silver letters, the swooshing font said 'Lucy' and she slid it onto her bracelet with a few colored beads. Then she opened the second charm pouch and saw a present and a little tag that had 'Our First Christmas' written on it.

"Thank you" she whispered after she turned and engulfed Natsu in a hug, "It's lovely."

Lucy carefully placed the bracelet on her wrist and clasped it so that it hung there against her skin with the beginning of its story dangling from the end of her arm. After a few moments Gajeel walked over to the Christmas tree and plucked a dense but small size package up for Levy. Instantly the bluenette recognized the weight and feel of what she was holding; a book. She enthusiastically tore at the wrapping paper to see what Gajeel had gotten her and she squealed at the sight of the fourth book in the series she was currently reading. She was so happy that she had decided to hold off on buying the book just yet. Yukino smiled sheepishly in slight confusion at Sting's gift, a fidget spinner. Mira had bought Laxus yet another pair of slippers as well. They all laughed and enjoyed the rest of their morning together, happy that they had time to relax with one another with no place to be. It had been a long time since the start of their band's success where they felt like they had all the time in the world to do whatever they wanted.

* * *

"Hey Luce" Natsu called out down the hall where Lucy was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, "Where do we put this?"

"I don't know" Lucy said with her mouth full of toothpaste as she stuck her head out down the hallway, "Wherever you want I guess."

Natsu sighed as he tried to find a place for it and settled for a half empty bookshelf. He felt the display space didn't do that dragon justice, but it would have to do for now. It was at least in a location where it was less likely to get knocked over or broken. After Lucy shuffled back in the room Natsu noticed how she wasn't in a comfy shirt and sweat pants like she usually was. She had herself covered in a robe and her face was tomato red.

"I… I wanted to show you this for Christmas" she stammered and clutched the bathrobe tighter to herself.

Natsu quirked a brow without moving from where he was standing several feet away from her by the bookshelf. After a couple more seconds of tangible silence Lucy undid the tie on her robe and let it pool at her feet on the floor, revealing the tight fitting red ribbon lingerie. Natsu's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as his mouth hung slightly open and all he could do was stare. He didn't even have words for the blond goddess in front of him. Slowly Lucy started walking towards Natsu and the pinkette didn't even notice the closing distance until she was a few inches away and touched his arm. Natsu's breath caught and he lost his balance for a second in surprise. He fell to one knee and was about to get up when his eyes suddenly got distracted by the milky white skin of her fully exposed thighs. Without thinking, Natsu immediately grabbed one of her legs as he attached his mouth and began planting gentle kisses along her skin.

"Goddamn Luce" he growled against her skin as he worked his way to her hip.

He didn't know how she had this effect on him but his entire mind was drowning in one stream of thoughts; touch, kiss, feel, hold, _love_. The pinkette felt the room spin slightly at the scary thought that he loved Lucy. He wasn't sure what else to call it. She made his mind race and his heart feel full to bursting. Unbeknownst to Natsu though, Lucy had the same feelings as him. It felt scary to her because she had never felt so dependent on someone before in her whole life. Ever since she ran away from her father and her family's fortune it's been her versus the world, she wasn't sure how she felt about letting someone else on her team since she had been alone for so long.

Natsu's kisses progressed as she slowly stood and trailed his mouth of the length of her exposed flesh until he finally found her mouth, grasping the back of her head firmly as she melted against him, nearly losing her balance.

"This was what I was trying to put on last night" Lucy blushed after breaking away from the heated kiss, breathing slightly heavy from the exertion.

Natsu gave her a mischievous smirk as he said, "You would've ended up with it getting taken off anyway" and then carried her towards the bed to accomplish just that.

"Natsuuu" Lucy whined with a playful pout as she slapped his chest lightly, "I didn't think you'd be in such a hurry."

"I didn't think you'd entice me so much" he countered as he began using his one of his fingers to trace along the different parts of the stringy fabric to figure out how to take it off.

Eventually he found a bra clasp in the back that unhooked so he could free her breasts, and slowly pulled the strands of ribbon down until she was fully exposed. Lucy was embarrassed and tried to use her arms as a body shield to obscure Natsu's vision.

"We've been over this" he growled seductively in Lucy's ear, his hot breath fanning her face, "I want to see every inch of you."

Slowly but firmly he pulled Lucy's arms away and got a generous view of her chest from where he was standing next to the bed, Lucy splayed across the mattress in front of him. Eventually she scowled, realizing that Natsu was still fully clothed. Natsu crawled up onto the mattress, disposing of his shirt on the way up and immediately attacked her lips with his before she could utter any protest. The blond slightly arched her back into his chest before Natsu reached down and grabbed one of her mouths with one of his hands, gently kneading the doughy flesh while twiddling the piercing she had between two of his fingers. Lucy felt her body begin to tingle at the touch from Natsu's hands on her skin and his lips and tongue invading her mouth. The blond reached down and managed to find the firm warmth protruding against his sweat pants with her hand. She gripped onto the length, causing Natsu to shutter for a moment before grinding his hips against her palm. Steadily, Lucy began to stroke the erection, making Natsu hiss obscenities in her ear before reaching down with his own hand and touching her bare folds between her legs.

"Ahh!" Lucy gasped in surprise at the feel of Natsu's fingers invading her core.

The pleasurable sensation distracted her so much that she let go of his length. Her head was spinning so fast that she could hardly focus on anything but the pleasure, especially when Natsu's thumb rotated occasionally over her clit, sending a jolt up her spine.

"I figured that would make you let go" Natsu growled in her ear, "I have to dominate you first, before I let you finish me off."

Lucy blushed at the bold words that he growled in her ear, his hot breath sending goosebumps all over her body. Natsu kicked off his sweat pants, revealing his erection and all it's glory. Lucy felt herself unintentionally salivate at remembering how it felt inside of her last night. However tonight was a little different. Natsu wasn't being as gentle as he had been last night, not that she minded. Tonight it was as if he didn't get enough from the last time, and was making up for it. Lucy could feel that he knew he was in complete control of the situation as he flipped Lucy onto her stomach and raised her hips so that her butt was in the air, a slightly dark lustful gaze on his face.

"What ar-?" Lucy was trying to ask from over her shoulder, a blush raging across her face.

Before she could finish uttering the question Natsu dove down and snatched her lips in his with bruising force as he snaked a hand up the back of her head, firmly clutching her hair as he made a fist against her scalp. Without so much as a warning, Natsu began to thrust in and out of Lucy from behind, the blond mewling and moaning into Natsu's mouth in surprise and pleasure.

"Shhh" Natsu breathed as he parted his lips from hers, "You'll give away what we're doing if you're too loud" he rumbled with a devilish smirk, knowing full well he was the cause of those noises.

"I~" Lucy slightly whimpered, "I can't help it~" she moaned before trying to bit her lip in order to stifle the sounds of pleasure.

Natsu got a cocky grin on his face as he took the grip he had on the back of Lucy's head and sat up, pulling her up so her weight was on her knees and elbows, "Guess you'll have to just moan then" he antagonized her before going back to thrusting again, harder this time now that he had the leverage with his grip on her hair.

If Lucy's small whines of pleasure weren't a dead giveaway, then then the smacking noise of their skin was. The continuous clapping of his thighs against the back of hers was music to his ears, but also made him cautious not to go any harder in case someone might be walking by their room. Lucy was almost incoherent the way she was mewling and panting at Natsu's exploration inside of her. As much as he loved being able to rail her from behind at his mercy like this, he wanted to see the lustful look on her face even more. Without hesitating, he flipped Lucy back over onto her back without pulling out, and then pinned her arms above her head. His face was hovering over hers as he panted and lightly groaned as he moved in and out of her.

"I wanted to see how much you were enjoying this" Natsu teased with a knowing smirk as he watching her squirm helplessly underneath him.

Lucy was unable to cover her face with her hands since Natsu had them firmly pinned above her head. All she could do was renew the blush on her face as she avoided eye contact with him out of embarrassment. She knew the look on her face was probably incredibly erotic, revealing the amount of pleasure she was experiencing from him.

"I like it though" Natsu leaned down closer to her ear as he continued to pummel away at her core with his length, "I love seeing you embarrassed, exposed, vulnerable, flustered. I never see this side of you, except when I come onto you."

Lucy couldn't even formulate a rebuttal or a single sentence in her mind at his words. A slight wave of indignation at his assertive dominance of her rose, but fell just as quickly as she relinquished control to him once again, prioritizing her carnal needs over her pride. Natsu chuckled at the slight clench of her muscles at his words before she melted back into rhythm with her. He had her wrapped around him, both figuratively and literally as her folds enveloped his length with each movement he made to connect their hips. After a few more moments, Natsu reached down to stoke Lucy's sensitive bundle of nerves, heightening her pleasure and stimulating her. Her moaning got a little louder, slightly panicking Natsu who then dove down to her lips in order to muffle her cries of pleasure. He decided to let his tongue go into her mouth, penetrating her oral caverns as she bucked her hips into his. He knew that she was close because her body was twitch uncontrollably in small spurts and eyes were almost rolling into the back of her head. Her hips were bucking wildly as if asking for more, and Natsu could _feel_ her desperation to reach climax. Natsu leg go of her lips in order to latch his mouth onto one of her breasts, massaging the pierced tip with his tongue. That last bit sent Lucy over the edge as she cried out louder than she had intended before muffling her orgasmic moan into Natsu's neck, already realizing that it was a little too late now.

"Dammit" he almost laughed, "You've done it now" he growled into her ear as he nibbled on her earlobe.

He had felt the orgasm rock her body as she seized uncontrollably and her muscles contacted around his length, adding more pressure than he though possible to his sensitive appendage. He had almost gone with her, but he controlled himself to keep it contained just a little while longer. After he felt her body slowly sinking into the bed and go limp he crawled onto the bed with his head towards the headboard, pulling Lucy on top of him.

"Ride me" he ordered with a lustful grin.

Lucy looked at him with embarrassment at both her moaning a moment ago, and his blunt request, "I mean, didn't you?..." she stammered trying to ask if he had gone with her.

"Nope" he said as he pointed to his still throbbing erection, "Ride it. That's your punishment for moaning so loudly. You have to straddle me."

Lucy covered her face in slight embarrassment as she crawled on top of the demanding dragon. Before she could utter any cry of protest Natsu pulled her arms away from her chest, fully exposing her breasts that soon began bouncing as he thrust his hips upwards into her like a jack hammer. There was even more force behind his thrusting than before since her weight was toppling back down into his firm hips, making it feel like he was moving harder. Lucy managed to partially stifle her moaning since her fatigue from her orgasm was setting in. It didn't make Natsu's penetration any less enjoyable for her though. She still felt stimulated and aroused as he pumped in and out of her. It only took a couple minutes of Natsu's intense thrusting to set him off. With a grunt he removed his hands from Lucy's arms to grab her hips as he slammed her down onto him as deep as possible. He could feel the ribbons of heat escape his tip as they filled the inside of her. Lucy could sense the surge of warmth as well and whimpered from the full feeling before collapsing onto of Natsu onto his chest.

She didn't know that Natsu was capable of that level of exertion. Lucy felt as if she had run a triathlon with the amount of abuse her body felt it had gone though, as pleasurable as the abuse was. Natsu's arms instinctively wrapped around Lucy's waist before he reached over and pulled the comforter over the top of the two of them, letting Lucy rest on top of him, their bodily fluids still mingling between them. He could take care of the sheets later. He just wanted to bask in the afterglow of having run the blond ragged and satiating himself.

* * *

"Oh my god" Sting paused the game downstairs on the TV and looked over at Rogue, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Rogue asked with his arms crossed, not happy that Sting had stopped in the middle of the episode.

Before Rogue could tell Sting to un-pause the show, they both heard an unmistakable cry from upstairs.

"Oh my god" Rogue blushed furiously, "Is that?..."

"Yes" Gajeel came out of the kitchen, "They're fucking. Now watch your damn TV show and mind your own business."

"Honestly" Laxus groaned, "Are you surprised at that? I'm honestly just surprised that Salamander isn't shutting her up some how. He probably thinks its funny that we can hear them."

"What an animal" Gray growled condescendingly as he came down the stairs, having come from the room next door to Natsu's, "I'm going to sit down here until they're done. I can't just sit there and listen to that."

Gajeel only snorted in amusement that Gray basically indirectly admitted that the action next door was arousing to him, but he'd never openly admit it. They all decided to stay where it was safe downstairs and turned the TV volume up.

* * *

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

I'm so sorry once again for all the time this has taken! Please leave me a review I love hearing from you guys! XOXO ^(^0^)^


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